The Missouri men’s golf team ran away with the Tiger Intercollegiate in the Tigers’ first home tournament of the season. Missouri won by eight strokes and claimed its first outright tournament victory since 2022 at the Turning Stone Tiger Intercollegiate.
The Tigers performed across the board at the Club at Old Hawthorne and landed four players in the top 10 on the leaderboard, none better than graduate student Mattias Varjun. The Estonia native, in his first season with Missouri, took home his first-ever collegiate No. 1 finish in convincing fashion. Varjun won the match by an impressive four strokes, shooting scores of 70, 70 and 66. His final round score capped off the successful tournament with the best score of his collegiate career. With seven of his eight lowest-scoring rounds this season coming in the Tigers’ previous three tournaments, it’s safe to say that Varjun is catching fire as the season nears the end.
Freshman Trent Mierl found himself not too far behind Varjun, placing No. 3 and matching his career-best collegiate finish from the Put Me In Coach Invitational on Sept. 16. Mierl is also heating up, placing in the top 10 for the second straight tournament and for the third time in his young career. Mierl shot scores of 71 and 68 in his first two rounds, tied for first with Varjun going into day three before shooting a 72 in his final round and finishing third in his first Tiger Intercollegiate.
Sophomore Veikka Viskari joined Varjun and Mierl in the top 10, adding yet another career performance to the team’s victory. Viskari shot scores of 69, 74 and 69 to place No. 5 overall and match his best finish of the season, dating back to Sept. 17 at the Canadian Collegiate Invitational. This marked his seventh top-10 finish of his collegiate career.
Rounding out the top-10 finishers for Missouri was freshman Bubba Chapman, who had only competed in two other tournaments this season before the Tiger Intercollegiate. Despite not cracking the top 40 in either of those other two tournaments, the Missouri native found himself in fifth place out of 99 players after day one. Chapman finished in a career-best No. 8 in the tournament, shooting 70, 73 and 70, and marked the lowest-scoring round of his young career.
Sophomore Brock Snyder and Junior Virgilio Paz were next in line for Missouri. Snyder shot scores of 73, 74 and 68 to place No. 16 overall, marking his fourth top-20 finish of the season. Paz recorded scores of 73, 70 and 73 to place No. 22.
Seniors Trevor Mierl and Dagbjartur Sigurbrandsson, the two longest-tenured Tigers, celebrated their final tournament in Columbia at the Intercollegiate along with Varjun. Trevor Mierl shot scores of 71, 75 and 74 to place No. 44, while Sigurbrandsson shot scores of 70, 73 and 75 to place No. 35.
Freshman Jakob Hansen brought up the rear for Missouri, placing No. 98 with scores of 77, 79 and 86 in his third tournament appearance of the season.
Missouri kept its winning culture in Columbia, with this victory marking its fifth win out of the last seven tournaments at the Tiger Intercollegiate. The team seems to be finding its groove as the season nears a close, with at least one player in the top 10 in three of its last four tournaments. With the conference championships rapidly approaching, and the SEC containing the top-three ranked collegiate men’s golf teams as of April 9, the Tigers will need to continue their hot streak to have a fighting chance.
Missouri looks to keep its momentum going into the Mossy Oak Collegiate on April 14 in West Point, Mississippi, marking the final tournament of the season for the Tigers before the SEC Championship kicks off on April 23.
Edited by Colin Simmons l csimmons@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com
