The Michigan men’s golf team had its best finish of the
season over the weekend at the Furman Intercollegiate in
Greenville, S.C., placing third out of 20 teams. Rebounding from
some struggles early in the season, the Wolverines were able to
outperform a strong field that included some of the top teams in
the nation.
Michigan finished the 54-hole tournament with a team score of
894, nine strokes behind second-place Virginia Tech. Host Furman
won the team title with an 883.
Michigan coach Andrew Sapp was pleased with his team’s
play throughout the tournament, but attributed much of its success
to its low score in the opening round. Michigan’s first-round
total of 295 was its best one-day score of the tournament and the
spring season.
“We often get off to a poor start in other
tournaments,” Sapp said. “This weekend, we were able to
play well in the first round and get into third place early, and
then continue to play well for the rest of the
tournament.”
The Wolverines’ third-round total of 300 was the
sixth-lowest score of the day — and beat both Furman and
Virginia Tech — but it was not enough to pass the Hokies in
the overall standings.
“We didn’t finish well,” Sapp said. “We
had some trouble on the last five or six holes. Some of the guys
were under par heading into these holes and ended up shooting 73 or
74.”
Going into yesterday’s final round, Sapp’s main goal
was to move into second place.
“We wanted to give Virginia Tech at least a run for their
money,” Sapp said. “They were 12 strokes ahead, which
was quite a few, but not insurmountable.”
Sophomore Christian Vozza led Michigan with a score of 220 total
and finished in a tie for sixth place overall. Vozza was consistent
throughout the tournament, carding rounds of 72, 74 and 74. After
shooting a team-low score of 71 in the first round, freshman Kevin
Dore carded rounds of 77 and 76 to finish in a tie for 18th place
with a total score of 224.
“Kevin just made more birdies in the first round,”
Sapp said. “He played fairly solid otherwise. It was good
that he was able to shoot 76 or 77, without getting birdies, on
tricky greens.”
Senior Rob Tighe also finished with a 224 total, placing three
Wolverines in the tournament’s top 20.
Led by strong individual performances, Michigan was able to
place third in a strong field with quite a few teams in the top 50,
including No. 32 Northwestern.
“For us to come here for the first time and to finish
third in this field is quite an accomplishment,” Sapp
said.
Looking ahead to upcoming tournaments at Purdue and Ohio State,
Sapp was most pleased with how his team performed against some
stiff Big Ten competition.
“We beat Northwestern for the first time this
season,” Sapp said. “They’re one of the better
teams in the Big Ten. It was a good victory for us.”