[Men's Golf] TABOR MENS GOLF TEAM FINISHES IN 8TH PLACE AT THE KCAC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Garden City, Kan. - The Bluejay Men's golf team traveled to Garden City, Kansas to compete in the KCAC Golf Championships at Buffalo Dunes. The 10 teams played 36 holes on Monday, 18 holes on Tuesday and the final round of 18 holes on Wednesday. 

Friends University won the event with an impressive 21 under par which was 19 strokes ahead of Bethany College. The Bluejays played their best tournament of the year but still finished in 8th place behind Southwestern and ahead of Bethel and York.  Tabor played well the first three rounds, posting their three best scores of the year with a 318, 308 and a 319 extending their lead to 35 strokes ahead of Bethel. In the final round, Tabor shot a 333 which was enough to stay ahead of Bethel but the team could not catch up to Southwestern.  

        Individually for the Bluejays Andreas Aho (SO/Menahga, Minn.) (75,75,71,76) was the team's top finisher for the Championship, tying for 20th. On Monday, Andreas played two solid rounds of 75 to put him in 25th place after day one.  On day two Andreas moved up to 18th place starting the round with two quick bogeys on holes one and three. He then bounced back with birdies on the par five fifth hole and the par four sixth hole to get back to even par. Andreas finished the front nine with a bogey on the ninth hole to finish the front one over par. Andreas then bogeyed number 12 which was a tough par three with strong crosswinds to put him at plus two for the second time of the day. Andreas then got on a roll and birdied the next three holes getting his score to one under par.

After the round he was asked how he was able to bounce back after being two over par twice on the day. Andreas replied, "It was just a matter of being able to move on from the bogeys and then take advantage of good tee shots, especially those that were down wind".  The par five 16th hole proved tough being directly in the wind but Andreas played it well and had a chance to par it, but another tough four foot putt took his score back to even par with two to play. With a good up and down on 17 Andreas blasted his tee shot on 18 into the front bunker next to the green.  A great sand shot to seven feet from the pin in front of a finishing crowd and another birdie putt made bringing his total to six on the day and capping a two under par back nine holes. Andreas' day two one under par round was the best 18 hole finish in a conference tournament for the Bluejays since they restarted the program five years ago.  The final day of the tournament for Andreas was very up and down with five birdies, five bogeys, two doubles and the rest pars. 

    David Darrah (SO/Wichita, Kan.) was second on the team this week with a 76,78 after the first day, no counting score for the third round and an 82 for the final round.  Ryan Hill (SO/Mohave Valley, Ariz.), Tabor's number two bag struggled during the week but put together a great second round 74 to lead the team for the best tournament round of 308 in history since Tabor restarted the program. Luke Buckingham (SO/Wichita, Kan.) finished fourth on the team and in 40th place with four scores in the low 80's and all four scores counting for the Bluejays. Tanner Story (FR/Blossom, Texas) finished fifth on the team with two counting scores.