Monday and Tuesday's inaugural Big Ten/Pac Ten Challenge was scheduled to be a 54 hole, 3 round golf tournament between the best teams from the Big Ten and Pac Ten conferences set at one of the most attractive public golf courses in America, Bandon Dunes resort in Bandon, Oregon.

That was before rain cancelled one of the rounds on Monday afternoon, turning the tournament to a 36-hole shootout.

The rain could shorten the length of competition, but could not dampen the success of the Penn State men's golf team.

"We played half our holes on Monday before the greens went underwater four holes into our second round," head coach Greg Nye said. "We had to pick up where we left off on Tuesday."

The Nittany Lions scored a 31 over par for the 36 hole course to finish in eighth place out of the 14 teams from both conferences, and third among seven Big Ten teams, only 11 strokes behind leaders University of Minnesota and University of Southern California. Penn State junior Greg Pieczynski led the five Lions competing with a seven over par score of 151, good for an 18th place individual tie, and 9th among Big Ten players.

Fortunately for the Lions, they scored the second best round with a 297 as a team in the second round on Tuesday.

That performance moved them from being tied for 10th on day one to their final 8th place finish, ahead of defending national champion University of California, and Big Ten golf powerhouse Purdue, 11th and 9th respectively.

Three Penn State golfers tied for 22nd individually at the end of play. Junior Mark Leon, senior Ted Neville, and sophomore Marco Poccia all shot 8 over par for scores of 152. Junior Andrew Price scored 16 over par for a final score of 160 and tied for 57th individually.

"Monday we really got separated from some of the Pac 10 teams, they outplayed us," Neville said. "But [Tuesday] the Big 10 did real well and had a good comeback."

The team next travels to Florida for the Golf Coaches Association of America national match play tournament beginning Nov. 14. Invitation to the GCAA tournament is based on 2004 national championship finish, and the Lions earned the distinction of placing 15th last year. Only the top 15 teams received invitations.

"We definitely played the caliber of golf that will put us into good position going into NCAA match play," Nye said.

In the conference challenge competition, the Pac Ten won with a combined score of 162 over par to beat the Big Ten 191 over par. The conference challenge was scored by counting the lowest six scores of each round in each conference.