It was the first leg of the UA men's golf team's "Hawaiian swing," and that's exactly what it did.
The team _ composed of what Coach Rick LaRose called "the second five" _ swung its way to a surprising seventh-place finish in the Taylor Made/Adila Big Island Intercollegiate in Waikoloa, Hawaii.
The tournament was held on The King's Golf Club, a 7,074 yard, par-72 course.
Our guys didn't do such a bad job, I'll tell you that," LaRose said. "A lot of good teams finished behind us, and if we played a little better, we could have had a top five
Arizona State won the 54-hole tournament with a 13-under par 851 and Stanford was second at 855. Arizona finished at
While the competition was fierce, the team still took time to take in some of the activities Hawaii has to offer.
We went snorkeling," LaRose said after the second round, "and saw some cool fish and some eels."
Back on land, Arizona was led by sophomore Jim Zadvorny, who shot a 2-over 218 and tied for 20th place overall. Freshman Mike Jones was a shot back at 219.
Sophomore Eric Sage came in at a 7-over 223, junior Benjamin Nicolay shot a 228 and freshman Ryan Fitzloff finished at 229.
They didn't embarrass themselves," LaRose said, "and they beat a couple of teams along the way."
Arizona's top five are now in the land of "Tiny Bubbles" to play in the John Burns Intercollegiate, which runs from today through Friday in Honolulu.
It will be most of the same teams from the Big Island tournament, but since we have brought over what we consider to be our top five, we're going to see if we can't win this one," LaRose said.
On the field for Arizona will be senior David Howser, sophomores Tim Beans, Jason Gore and Ted Purdy, and freshman Gary Matthews.
We're kind of anxious, and pretty excited to see how we'll do," LaRose said. "This will be a good base to compare this team with the JV squad, to see where the first ten stand." They didn't embarrass themselves," LaRose said, "and they beat a couple of teams along the way."