As the Penn State men's golf team traveled west to Fairfax, Ca. for the Alister Mackenzie Invitational, the most important thing to do was continue the momentum from its recent championship at the VCU/Mattaponi Springs shootout. The Nittany Lions were able to keep it going for a while, but once again they fell victim to a final-round collapse, standing tied for third after one day of competition.

On Monday, the Lions shot rounds of 287 and 274, putting them in a tie for third place with Oregon St. Yesterday, they fired a combined 304
for the last 18 holes of the event,
ultimately finishing in tenth place overall in the 15-team field.

The inability to finish well has been a problem for Penn State recently, but in capturing a victory last week, it looked as though they may have overcome this major flaw.

Instead, the team's final score of 865 left them well off the pace of team champion California, which scored an 826. Cal, whose Michael Wilson led all individuals at 11-under-par, was able to run away with their home tournament, held at the Meadow Club. It led after every round and cruised to victory, 16 strokes ahead of its nearest competitor, San Jose St.

While the Lions would have been hard-pressed to catch Cal, they ended up only 12 strokes out of third place. If not for yesterday's round, which was tied for the worst of any team throughout the event, the results could have been different.

Junior Robert Rohanna led Penn State, tying for 10th overall after carding a 211. He was in fifth through the first day after shooting rounds of 69 and 68, but followed that up with a last-round 74 to drop in the individual standings. Still, he was the only Lion to finish in the top-20 and under-par.

Freshmen Jim Markovitz had the Lions second-best score, tying for 25th-place at three-over-par. Fellow freshman Kevin Foley tied for 48th with his seven-over-par performance. Sophomore Chad Bricker's total of eight-over-par put him in 52nd, while junior Harvin Groft finished 69th after posting a score of 12-over-par.