ACU wins in Arizona
10/4/2007 5:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- ACU fired a final-round 287 Tuesday and then won a scorecard playoff over Point Loma Nazarene to claim the team championship at the Grand Canyon Fall Invitational, its first tournament title of the fall 2007 season.
The Wildcats shot a three-round total of 843 (281-275-287) at the par-72, 7,121-yard Estrella Mountain Ranch Golf Club to win the championship. ACU tied with Point Loma Nazarene, which shot a final-round 281 to make up a six-shot deficit going into the third round. The tiebreaker was based on the fifth-player scorecard, meaning the score that was not counted in Tuesday's best four invididual scores. ACU's Hilton Funk shot a 2-over-par 74, while Point Loma's Trent Castro shot a 4-over-par 76 to give the Wildcats the team victory.
ACU had three players finish in the top 13 individual standings, led by Erik Manning, who fired a final-round 70 to go along with a first-round 68 and second-round 70 to finish tied for sixth at 8-under-par 208. Patrick Hanauer finished tied for 10th at 6-under-par 210 (69-68-73), while Funk finished tied for 13th at 4-under-par 212 (71-67-74). Freshman Charles Levitte was tied for 28th at even-par 216 (73-70-73), while Stephen Knight was tied for 35th at 2-over-par 218 (77-70-71).
Western Washington shot the second-lowest team round of the tournament on Tuesday, firing a 12-under-par 276 (second to ACU's second-round total of 13-under-par 275), and 276 was led by Jake Kuppenberg's 62, which was the low individual round of the tournament. Kuppenberg, who shot 70-68 in the first two rounds, finished at 16-under-par 200 to win the individual medalist title. He won the individual title by four shots over Grand Canyon's Ryan Sperry (72-66-66--204), while Point Loma's Sam Cyr was third at 11-under-par 205 (67-68-70).
The Wildcats played extremely well at the tournament, carding only five rounds (out of 15) above par with the highest round of the tournament a 77 posted by Knight in Monday's first round. Funk's second-round 67 was the third-lowest individual round of the tournament, and Manning was under par in all three rounds of the tournament.
ACU will be back in action next Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 8-9) at the Texoma Match-Play Championship in Kingston, Okla., before wrapping up the fall season Oct. 22-23 at The Rattler Round-Up in San Antonio.
