Oct. 13, 2009

Akron, Ohio -

The Tigers didn't improve their fortunes much on the final day of the Firestone Invitational, but for once it didn't matter: everyone else fell back as well, leaving the Tigers with an eighth place finish in their first tournament of the fall semester.

After digging themselves into a hole during the first round at Firestone Country Club the Tigers managed to salvage the day with a five-over second round 293. The third round brought shades of the opening day as the Tigers could manage only a 303 but still improved their fortunes and shot up to eighth on the leaderboard.

Junior Patrick Kucich led the way for the Tigers with a final round 224 to finish in 20th, narrowly missing an opportunity on the last hole to jump near the top ten. Fellow junior TJ Bordeaux struggled with his swing throughout the week but posted a round of 75 on Monday morning and then back-to-back 76's on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

The trio of Bayhaan Lakdawala, Alex Johnson and Danny Garcia all finished in 46th place, finding various ways of shooting 230 over the 54-hole tournament. Garcia bounced back from an 82 with a second round 71, one-under par and the lowest outing for the Tigers on the week. Johnson also bounced back in the second round with a one-over 73 and Lakdawala saw his production increase as the tournament progressed; shooting 79-76 and then 75.

In tenth place entering the final round Pacific stayed away from the big numbers and did their best to chip away at the leaderboard as teams vied for position throughout the day. While the Tigers didn't make any significant improvement on their own it was a +28 by Rhode Island and a +18 by Marquette that allowed them to jump back into the top ten at +42 for the tournament; shooting rounds of 310-293-303=906.

T20 T30 Patrick Kucich +8 F +3 76 73 75 224 T34 T37 T.J. Bordeaux (10) +11 F +4 75 76 76 227 T46 T49 Dan Garcia (10) +14 F +5 82 71 77 230

T46 T49 Alex Johnson (10) +14 F +5 80 73 77 230

T46 57 Bayhaan Lakdawala +14 F +3 79 76 75 230

1 St. Mary's-California. +5 F +4 291 286 292 869

2 Eastern Michigan U. +6 F +6 283 293 294 870

3 Michigan State +24 F +15 293 292 303 888

4 Kansas State Univ. +25 F +9 296 296 297 889

5 Kentucky, U. of +26 F +13 296 293 301 890

6 Toledo +32 F +12 302 294 300 896

7 Akron, U. of +33 F +17 296 296 305 897

T8 Pacific, U of +42 F +15 310 293 303 906

T8 Marquette +42 F +18 298 302 306 906

10 Rhode Island, U. of +44 F +28 299 293 316 908

11 Western Carolina U. +54 F +24 306 300 312 918