MAYETTA, Kan. - Three Golden Bears produced -1 third round scores and all five on the team lineup shot 75 or better as Concordia-St. Paul surged two places in the final team leaderboard to finish ninth place in the 15-team Firekeeper Open hosted by Washburn University at Firekeeper Golf Course.
Concordia dropped its team score each round of the tournament, including a 10-stroke improvement from the first (298) to third (288) round, including a 296 in the second yesterday. The team finished at 882, just one stroke out from a tie for seventh place. Central Missouri (-19) won the tournament by a four shot margin over Missouri Southern State (-15) while West Texas A&M (-10) and Washburn (-8) were also under par for the 54 hole cumulative team scoring.
Concordia's third round was highlighted by three players who went -1 (71),
Brandon Sperling,
Thomas Gutzmer (his second in a row) and
Hunter Robinson. All six Golden Bears who competed, including
Trey Timm on the individual side, converted at least two birdies on the day with Timm highlighting the round with four in a row between holes 4-7.
While Sperling, Gutzmer, and Robinson each shot a 71, the other two players on the team card were +3 (75) in
Tommy Marker and
Ben Rasinski, while Timm turned in a +2 (74).
Sperling was CSP's top overall finisher, tied for 17th among 88 players with a 215, four shots ahead of Gutzmer (t-29) and five ahead of Robinson (t31) while Timm (t-37) on the individual side was only six shots behind Sperling.
Alex Gentry (-13) of Central Missouri held onto the top spot by a four stroke margin over Daniel Duffin (-9) of Washburn while Wyatt Provence (-6) took third from West Texas A&M.
Concordia's Timm, Gutzmer, and Sperling each produced 11 birdies, followed by Timm's 10, with all six Golden Bears shooting at least five birdies. Rasinski's 34 pars led the team, followed by Robinson's 32, with Sperling and Marker each contributing an eagle in the event.
Robinson tied for the tournament lead on par 5 holes, shooting -7 for a 4.42 average. Sperling topped CSP on par 3 holes at -1, and Gutzmer and Sperling were both +2 on par 4 play to lead the roster.
