By Andrew Hartley(@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter
The SJSU men’s golf team returned from over a month long gap to be greeted to another shortened tournament, placing fifth at the Bandon Dunes Championship. In the last 41 days, the team has only finished two rounds of play.
A rain cancellation Monday forced the tournament to be 36-holes long instead of its intended 54.
“We had a little too much time off,” said head coach John Kennaday. The team was supposed to play in Hawaii at the Amer Ari Invitational before its cancellation due to wind delays.
Bandon Dunes has brought the Spartans recent success placing second last year as a team and now senior Caleb Shetler won individual play. But the same success could not be replicated this year.
Despite a great second day of play, mistakes made Sunday dug the Spartans in a hole they could not come back from. Seven double-bogeys were definitely an irregularity and something they can hope to attribute to rust.
The downtime did not seem to affect the team on par 3s however, shooting the best of any team.
Zubair Firdaus continued his impressive start this spring leading the Spartans with a score of 145. Shooting just one over par, the score would finish tied for eighth individually.
Kristopher Stiles had the worst score for the team Sunday with a 78 but followed it up with his best score on Tuesday with a 69. Stiles also participated in the APGA Black History Month Classic getting in work before the start of the tournament.
Freshman Xuan Luo got his first collegiate action in this tournament, tying for 63rd in the field and shooting an impressive two under par on Tuesday.
SJSU men’s golf hopes to get through an interrupted tournament in two weeks at the Oregon Duck Invitational.