Golf: Men's
Short-handed Nittany Lions out of team competition at Gopher Invitational
Things got even worse for Penn State's men's golf team following a poor opening-round showing at the Gopher Invitational Sunday.
Sophomore Jens Talbert and freshman Chris Houston did not golf in the day's second round for undisclosed reasons. This gave the short-handed Nittany Lions a DNF on the team leaderboard, taking them out of the conversation for a team victory.
Even if Talbert and Houston did compete in the second round, though, chances are the team would not have finished Sunday too high on the leaderboard anyway. A team score of 310 (+22) left the Lions in 13th place out of the 15-team field, giving them plenty of work to do to catch up to California, which shot a round-leading 274 (-14).
However, it was not all bad news for the Lions. The three golfers on the team that did compete in the second round all improved their scores--senior Anthony DeGol by six strokes, senior Jay Woodward by one stroke, and freshman Geoff Vartelas by three strokes.
Vartelas, who is making his debut with the Lions at the tournament, led the team in each round and currently has an overall score of 147 (+3). Houston, also in his first tournament as a Lion, tied Talbert for third on the team after the first round with a 79 (+7). Both freshmen are already proving they can add even more young talent to team over the course of the season.
California is leading all teams heading into Monday's final round. With an overall score of 564 (-12), the Golden Bears are the only team shooting under par. SMU is the closest competitor, 14 strokes behind with a 578 (+2).
It comes as no surprise that the top of the individual leaderboard is filled by Golden Bears, too. Max Homa leads everyone after shooting a total of 137 (-7). Brandon Hagy, also of California, and Victor Perez, of New Mexico, are tied for second place with two 141s (-4).
Live scoring of Monday's final round can be followed at http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/index.cfm?tournament_id=3644. End-of-tournament coverage can be found inside The Daily Collegian later this week.