The fall season was nearly perfect for the Missouri men’s golf team. The Tigers finished first in all but one of their tournaments. The team looks to continue its success into 2013 in the first event of the spring season: The Farmers’ Collegiate Invitational.
The teams played 36 holes Monday and will finish the event with 18 holes on Tuesday. In the 12-team field, Missouri is only one of two teams not from California competing in the event.
The Tigers spent most of the first round in fourth place. Junior Emilio Cuartero led the Tigers with a 71, finishing 1-under par. Missouri finished the first round of play with a team score of 299, 11 strokes behind third place Fresno State.
Senior Jace Long finished 1-over par after the first round of play, sophomore Ryan Zech and freshman Jacob Fair finished the first round with a 77 and 78, respectively, and junior Hunter Kraus finished with a 79 but did not score for the Tigers in the first round of action.
On Jan. 30, Long was named to the Ben Hogan Award Watch List, which honors the best Division I golfer in the nation. Long is among five golfers from the Southeastern Conference to make the list and is on the list for the second consecutive season. He is currently No. 10 in Golf Week’s individual rankings.
The Tigers jumped Fresno State in the second round, and walking into Tuesday, lead by one stroke. Fresno State was 21 over par in the second round as a team despite having the individual leader of the tournament at 3 under, Jack Mulroy.
Cuartero dropped to 1-over par with a second round 73. After finishing 3 over on the front nine, the junior rallied to 2 under on the back nine, but a bogey on hole No. 18 put Cuartero over par for the day. He is tied for fourth individually and Long is tied for ninth place. Long finished the day at 2 over par with a second round 73.
Fair improved on his first round performance with a second round 73. Fair is currently 7 over and tied for 18th place.
The Tigers will look to move up the leaderboard in the final round on Tuesday. After that the team will not play in another event until Feb. 25 in Chandler, Ariz. for another two-day event, the Snowman Getaway Intercollegiate Tournament.