By Dawson Smith – Staff Reporter | Freshman Christan Maggard at Amer Ari Invitational (Photo courtesy of SJSU Athletics)
The San Jose State men’s golf team finished a competitive three-day stretch ranking No. 13 at the Amer Ari Invitational on Saturday at Mauna Lani Resort, golfing against four nationally ranked top-10 teams.
The overall winner was the No. 5-ranked University of Auburn as they shot (-77) overall, led by the top-ranked amateur golfer junior Jackson Koivun.
Koivun already has his PGA card which allows him to compete in PGA events like the U.S. Open, which Koivun competed in last year. During this tournament, Koivun broke Tiger Woods 30 year old record for best score through 36 holes at (-20).
The Spartans posted scores of 279, 280, 280 finishing at (-25) overall and a total score of 839.
Senior Ivan Barahona led the Spartans for the week; he was 33rd at (-10). Barahona made strides this year as he finished 70 positions higher than last year. He was tied for 17th in birdies with 18 on the weekend.
This finish was a much better performance for the Spartans as they finished the previous year at 18th overall.
Along with Barahona junior Keshav Mungail (-6) also led the way going into day three positioning the team in 11th and a shot to make the top 10.
Starting the new year off hot has been Mungail, as he finished this event at position 38 (-9) overall. Mungail led the Spartans in the previous event also at (+6) and tied 25th position.
Mungail was consistent during the week as he finished tied for 7th in total pars at 37, tied for 34th with Barahona with average score on par-4s and tied for 21st on average of par-5s with 4.33 and (-8) total on this type of hole.
“We shot 25-under-par, a bit of a team effort, but I think it stings a little bit because of how close we were to really going very low,” SJSU head coach John Kennaday said.
The Spartans were consistent all event finishing fourth overall in total pars at 170 and 12th in bogeys. Capitalizing was another factor in why the Spartans couldn’t fully reach their peak at this event, finishing 15th with 60 birdies; they were 35 birdies behind 1st place. On top of that, day three saw some very unfortunate bogeys and doubles on holes that cut momentum.
Freshman Christan Maggard and senior Avinash Iyer both played well, finishing the event at (-2) overall and tied for position 76.
Iyer had magic on the front nine of the course, finishing with two eagles on holes two and seven; his eagles were tied for second overall in the event. His improvement was also seen as last year he finished 95th, rising 19 spots.
Maggard, being a freshman at this event, had some pressure and he was able to play smoothly. His 35 pars were third on the team and he tied for 22nd overall in this category. He also shot (-18) better than the previous event, showing he has the potential to be great.
The Spartans look to ride their performance into the Desimone Invitational in March 9-10 at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif.
