The Missouri men’s golf team took the victory in its first tournament of the season over Labor Day weekend, winning the Turning Stone Invitational in Verona, New York. It was the team’s second straight season winning the tournament.

The Tigers’ starting five consisted of freshman Rory Franssen, junior Trevor Ullestad, sophomore Preston Fleenor and seniors Euan Walker and Linus Lilliedahl.

The team shot -3 on Saturday, sliding in at second place just seven total strokes behind Texas A&M for the lead at -10. As the only teams to shoot under par on Saturday, Mizzou and Texas A&M asserted themselves as the only contenders to win the tournament.

Eventually, Mizzou separated themselves from Texas A&M. Shooting -9 on day three as a team, Mizzou jumped ahead of Texas A&M, who shot +5, to win the tournament by finishing at -12. Texas A&M would finish second at -5, followed by Toledo in third at +11 and Chattanooga in fourth at +24, and Cleveland State finished out the top five, shooting +28.

Individually, Texas A&M’s Kavan Eubank finished first, shooting -8 to par helped by an impressive opening round 65, the low for the tournament. For the Tigers, Walker and Ullestad finished tied for third, shooting -3 for the tournament. They helped their team’s cause with respective rounds of 68 and 71 on Sunday. Not far behind them was Lilliedahl, who finished tied for fifth, shooting -2 for the tournament, aided by a final round of 69.

As for the rest of the Tigers, Matt Echelmeier, participating as an individual, would finish tied for ninth, shooting even par for the tournament. Franssen began his Tiger career by finishing tied for 13th, at +3 for the tournament. Finally, Fleenor finished with a solid 16th-place finish, shooting +5 for the tournament.

The Tigers led the tournament in par 3 scoring average at 2.97, in addition to a par 5 scoring average of 4.67. They would also lead the tournament in pars with 170. No Mizzou player finished below 16th out of 76 competitors. Individual highlights included a birdie on the first career hole for Franssen. In addition, Echelmeier recorded a hole-in-one in a practice round Sunday.

The team returned to Columbia on Monday after the victory. From there, they’ll look to carry their momentum into the Jackrabbit Invitational in Valentine, Nebraska, from Sept. 25-27.

_Edited by Peter Baugh | pbaugh@themaneater.com_