Lions fade to fourth in golf regional

May 07, 2008 01:15 am

— From staff reports
sports@joplinglobe.com
FINDLAY, Ohio — Back-nine struggles dropped Missouri Southern into fourth place after two rounds of the NCAA Division II Central Regional golf tournament.
The Lions’ 16-over-par 304 on Tuesday marked a four-shot improvement over Monday’s opening round, but the Lions were passed in the team standings by Central Missouri, which carded a 291.
MIAA champion Washburn fired a 1-under-par 287 for a 36-hole total of 585. The Ichabods widened their team lead to 21 shots over Missouri Western. Central Missouri was third with 607, followed by MSSU 612, Southwest Baptist 613, Upper Iowa 615, Winona State (Minn.) 617 and Fort Hays State 634.
The Lions made the turn at 1-under in the second round but ran into problems on the back nine.
“Most people would say the back nine is a little bit easier,” Lions coach Kevin Greim said. “By making the turn at 1-under, we had a chance to have a really special day by doing well on the back. But instead of taking advantage, we gave away strokes and bogeyed holes we should not have bogeyed.”
Seve Smith’s 2-over-par 74 was the Lions’ best score of the day. Smith was even-par through 15 holes before bogeying two of the last three holes.
Ben Perry and Adam Nelson each had 76s, and David Eddy shot 78. Perry’s 4-over 40 on the back included back-to-back double-bogeys.
The Lions’ Jamie Voegeli, the first-round leader with a 72, shot 73 Tuesday but was disqualified after an improper drop after hitting in a hazard on the par-4 third hole.
“There is a creek running in front of the green,” Greim said. “He flew his shot over the creek, over the yellow hazard line and it rolled back in. He checked with his playing partners, and they told him it was OK to drop on the other side of the water. The rule is you have to take the point of flight back over the water. You can’t drop it on the other side.”
Nelson and Smith are tied for 18th place at 154, and Eddy and Perry are at 156 and 158, respectively.
“We were so focused and so sharp for the first 10 holes,” Greim said. “I knew Washburn was going to play well because the conditions were pretty good. I was not sure if we would be able to catch them, but after the first nine, I thought we had a real shot at maybe getting the wild-card into the national.
“We played so well to put ourselves in a position to have an unbelievable day and it gets away from us for some reason. If we had shot 8-over and 8-over (for the two nines), then I would be thinking maybe we’re not good enough to compete with these teams. But when you play 1-under golf for five guys on the hardest side of the golf course, you are good enough. That’s the frustrating part. We proved we are good enough to put ourselves in good position and didn’t finish it off.
“I will say our mindset has been much better this week than it was at Branson (in the MIAA Tournament). We’re not playing scared or tentative.”
Missouri Western’s Aaron Lisenbee fired a 7-under-65 Tuesday and grabbed the individual lead at 3-under-par 141. Justin Yoder was Central Missouri was second with 144, and Washburn’s Matt Ewald and Upper Iowa’s Adam Winans are tied at 146.