After two consecutive, discouraging ninth-place finishes, the No. 42 Michigan men's golf team embraced the opportunity to practice in Ann Arbor during a ten-day layoff. before this weekend's FAU Spring Break Championship in Delray Beach, Fla.

That break certainly helped.

The Wolverines finished second in a field of 14 at the FAU Spring Break Championship in Delray Beach, Fla. They were outdone by No. 20 Illinois, who won the three-day tournament by a 14-stroke margin. Michigan was led by sophomore Lion Kim, who finished tied for fourth overall, highlighted by a bogey-free score of 67 in the final round. Michigan finished three strokes ahead of intrastate rival Eastern Michigan.

Freshman Matt Thompson, who finished tied for 10th, also had a bogey-free last round. Senior co-captain Nick Pumford, who tied for 14th, had no bogeys and two birdies in the final nine holes of the event.

“Any time you have a bogey-free round, that really pretty much means that you didn’t make a mistake all day,” Kim said. “So that’s what kept us in the tournament.”

Michigan improved its play and its standing with each day of the tournament. The Wolverines were in fifth place after the first day. But they saved their best performance for last, posting a 282 in the final round — a 10-stroke improvement from the day before.

But even with Michigan's steady improvement, the Illini, who the Wolverines defeated in the Big Ten Match Play Tournament last month, were too much.

“You want to be able to move up the leaderboard each day you play, so that’s a definite positive that hopefully we can take into future tournaments,” Michigan coach Andrew Sapp said.

The final-round success of Kim, Thompson and Pumford was even more crucial because of senior co-captain Bill Rankin's final-day struggles. Rankin shot a bogey or worse just twice through the first 36 holes. But he shot a 78 in the last 18, capped by a five-over 10 on the final hole of the event.

Sapp and Kim both said they thought the week of practice at home helped the team regain its confidence. Sapp said many players' practice round scores were in the mid-to-high 60’s.

“(Last week,) the team talked about what needs to be done and our practice rounds went well,” Kim said. “So we just had a really positive attitude and really played solid.”

The team will have more time to practice in the next two weeks until the River Landing Intercollegiate on April 10 in Wallace, N.C. That event will be the Wolverines’ last chance to compete against other schools until the Big Ten Championships on May 1.