Feb. 3, 2012
• Golfstat.com Live Scoring WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i - The Washington men's golf team opened its spring season by finishing seventh in the Ameri Ari Invitational at Waikoloa's Kings' Course on the Big Island of Hawai'i. The Huskies ended up 9-under for the 54-hole tournament, 21 strokes behind the winners - top-ranked Texas. The Huskies, ranked fifth by Golfstat.com, entered Friday's final round fourth on the leaderboard and just five strokes off the lead. Uncharacteristic mistakes cost the Huskies a shot at returning to the mainland with a title in tow. "It was a disappointing day," said Husky Coach Matt Thurmond. "We just didn't have it today. "It was actually a good start, but then shortly after, we butchered the par-5 fourth hole. We never really got it back after that, put up some big numbers and made some uncharacteristic mistakes. It was just a rough all-around day for us." The best rounds of the day were turned in by UW's two junior leaders Chris Williams and Charlie Hughes. Both shot even-par 72s.
Williams ended tied with Cheng-Tsung Pan for a team-best 13th-place finish. Both finished the tournament at 5-under 211. They finished six strokes behind co-medalists Jeffrey Kang of USC and Jordan Spieth of Texas. Pan began the day fifth among individuals and made an early march up the leaderboard with three birdies early. From there, the wheels fell off as he had five bogeys and a double-bogey. "He doesn't make many bogeys, so to see him make so many is a new thing," Thurmond said of Pan, who came into the final day with just three bogeys. " I don't think that's normal and I just think that was a bad day for him and some of our other guys. I don't think we'll see much of that in the future." Sophomore Trevor Simsby had the third best week among Huskies with a 23rd-place finish. He shot a 3-over 75 on Friday and dropped from 6th to 23rd. Hughes was fourth among Huskies and tied for 76th. Cory McElyea was 82nd. Despite the team's ultimate end, Thurmond was pleased with the overall week. "It was a decent week," Thurmond said. "We ended up finishing okay and had a lot of good rounds. It was a nice week for Trevor Simsby. I thought the way Charlie fought back down the stretch was big after having such a tough week. "It's fun playing with the best teams and if you don't play well, those guys are going to beat you pretty good and those guys did that today. But we still beat a lot of good teams and we can't wait to play those guys again."
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