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Sports

Cougars end day on top of home tournament

Team leads at All-American Intercollegiate

Cougar Sports Services 

It didn't take the UH golf team long to get things heated up as hosts of the All-American Intercollegiate tournament on Monday at Houston's Cypresswood Golf Club. The Cougars stood atop the first-day leaderboard after recording the two best team rounds of the day.

The competing programs that attended the event were Arkansas-Little Rock, Colorado, Jacksonville State, Kansas, Louisiana-Layfayette, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Southern Louisiana, Texas-Arlington and Wyoming.

The Cougars tallied a team score of 284 in the morning session and bettered that score in the afternoon trial with a 282 mark to cap the first day at 10-under-par 566 on 36 holes played. Colorado came in second at 573, while Kansas took the third spot at 583. 

Memphis (584), Louisiana-Lafayette (587), Middle Tennessee (588), Southeastern Louisiana (589), Texas-Arlington (592), Jacksonville State (595) and Louisiana Tech (609) were the remaining teams in the top 10.

Individually, Memphis' freshman Keven Fortin-Simard notched a score of 67 in the afternoon to finish the first day at 8-under-par 136. 

Jacksonville State freshman Daniel Willett finished second at 7-under-par 137 while UH senior Zack Mowbray came in third at 5-under-par 139. Four golfers were tied for fourth at 141, including Houston's junior Ricky Romano.

This was the first time since 1997 that the tournament has taken place. The tournament was founded in 1955 under head coach Dave Williams, and was played every year until 1997.

The Cougars came into Monday's play with a tremendous outing in the Club de Golf Santa Anita/North Texas Classic, placing first out of 11 teams on Feb. 19 and 20. 

Entering the last round, the Cougars and Hoosiers were deadlocked, but Houston edged out Indiana by three strokes, 868 to 865, to win the event.

Junior Pablo Acuna shot a 68 in the final round to help the Cougars win the championship. Acuna shot a 37 on the front nine and 31 on the back nine. Acuna birdied five of the last six holes to finish 6-under-par 210, a stroke better than Hoosier freshman Jorge Campillo.

Acuna won the first individual championship of his collegiate career and was also named Conference USA Golfer of the Week. Acuna leads the team with a 70.9 scoring average, 1.5 strokes ahead of Romano.

Houston also had standout performances from Mowbray, who finished tied for third with a 3-under-par 213 performance, and Romano, who tied for seventh with a 1-over-par 217. Senior Kevin Newman tied for 24th shooting 225 and sophomore Jordan Irwin tied for 34th shooting 228.

The remainder of the 54-hole tournament will continue at 8 a.m. today with a shotgun start; the afternoon session will start at 1 p.m.

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