By Andrew Hartley (@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter
Carl Corpus follows his shot, teeing off to begin a new hole. Photo courtesy SJSU Athletics
The entire SJSU golf team made their way down to Bremerton, Wash. to compete in the Husky Invitational. Despite the team finishing eighth overall, sophomore Ivan Barahona stole the show, finishing second in the individual tournament.
Through September 18-19, two tournaments took place: a team tournament where five players took part and one for the individuals where the remaining seven played.
“We’ll get everybody some tournament experience and get to see where everybody’s at,” said SJSU head coach John Kennaday.
Team Tournament
Teeing off on the Olympic Course, the Spartans finished on the bottom half of the field. The team shot an 867, just 3-over par.
Carl Corpus continued his strong start to the season, finishing tied ninth, and shooting a 212, 4-under par. Corpus has now finished in the top 10 in both tournaments this season.
Despite play being suspended on Monday due to darkness, the Spartans were still able to complete all 36 holes.
On Tuesday, Xuan Luo and Zubair Firdaus joined Corpus shooting under par to help the team jump from ninth to eighth.
Individual Tournament
Shooting a 203, a 13-under par, Barahona shot the best of any Spartan over the two-day tournament. He put up an astonishing 65, a 7-under par, on Tuesday, guiding him in his first tournament with SJSU.
Avinash Iyer also had an impressive Tuesday shooting 4-under. Iyer tied for tenth overall.
All four freshmen participated in the Cascade course, where the individual tournament occurred. It became a quick way to get the entire program experienced in what tournaments could be like in the future.
The first day of the tournament, Monday, was a 36-hole day offering many challenges to the team. But Kennaday believed their recent tournament in Japan prepared them for moments like this now and for the rest of the season.
“We got several great lessons in flexibility, a little bit of adversity,” said Kennaday.
SJSU will play its third of four fall tournaments back in California. The Spartans will travel to Fairfax to take part in the Alister MacKenzie Invitational on October 9-10. SJSU finished third in the same tournament a year ago.
