The Western Washington University men’s golf team moved up two spots on the leaderboard to finish in 6th place in the 2021 WWU Invitational held Monday and Tuesday at Loomis Trail Golf Club.
Beginning the day in 8th place out of nine teams, the Vikings turned in the lowest team score in Tuesday’s final round with an even-par 288. WWU began the season recording a 12-stroke team victory at the Saint Martin’s Invitational held Friday-Saturday at The Home Course in DuPont.
WWU’s back-to-back tournament performances led to winning the Northwest Champions Cup for the lowest combined team score in the SMU and WWU tournaments over the last five days. The Vikings bettered Simon Fraser by eight strokes to take home the trophy for the second time in three years.
“The guys bounced back nicely today and played some great golf,” said WWU Director of Golf Luke Bennett. “This game is humbling, but lots of great things to take away from the last five days, winning a tournament and then going through a tough round. The guys learned some lessons this week and I think that will benefit us as we head into the remainder of our fall schedule.”
Junior Jordan Lee led the Vikings tying for 6th place in the 55-player field after carding in an even-par 72 on Tuesday. Lee was 4-under-par through his first 10 holes Tuesday, but settled for the even-par round. He recorded five birdies on the back nine at Loomis Trail.
“Jordan was rock-solid, just a little unfortunate in the final round,” said Bennett. “His game is really strong after a great summer of competition and we look forward to more great rounds out of him this year.”
Freshman Cole Reynolds recorded the lowest round of Tuesday’s final round with a 3-under-par 69. Starting on No. 11, Reynolds began his bogey-free round with eight consecutive pars before tallying three birdies on his final 10 holes. He finished the tournament tied for 14th place at 6-over-par 150, bouncing back from an opening-round 81.
“A great bounceback round for Cole, who has really shown great poise as a true freshman so far in two tournaments,” said Bennett. “All three of our freshman have learned a lot in these first two tournaments and I think that will greatly benefit us as a team as we go through the rest of the fall and spring season.”
Playing as an individual, Cody Oakes also tied for 14th place at 6-over-par 150, with rounds of 74-76. Seniors Aidan Thain and Devin Andrews finished the tournament tied for 22nd at 7-over-par 151.
Chico State recorded a two-stroke victory for the team tournament title finishing at 20-over-par 596, with Montana State Billings earning runner-up honors at 22-over-par 598.
Keith Ng of Hawai'i Hilo won individual medalist honors at 1-under-par 143, earning a one-stroke victory over Keita Okada of Hawai'i Pacific.
