Mental preparation is the name of the game as the Auburn Men's Golf team prepares for the Bluegrass Invitational April 10-11 in Lexington, Ky.
The Tigers finished seventh at the Hootie at Bulls Bay in Charleston, S.C., last weekend. Auburn opened the first day of the tournament strong, tying with leader LSU in the front nine at 2-under par.
"A lot of it is putting," said red-shirt freshman David Zickler. "We've been told all year that we're the best putting team nationally, and I believe that. We're definitely one of the best ball-striking teams, but we just need to improve on a weekly basis on putting and pitching around the green we should be fine."
Auburn entered the back nine with East Tennessee State and NC State as sophomore Will McCurdy made a par-5 eagle on No. 10, the course's longest hole. The Tigers closed the day tied for fourth, three strokes behind the leader, LSU. In individual performances, sophomore Kyle Kopsick tied for fifth, while McCurdy tied for eighth.
Auburn dropped to sixth on day two, though the top eight teams were separated by a mere six strokes.
"It's not too often that you find the top eight teams in a tournament only separated by six strokes after 36 holes of golf," said Auburn coach Nick Clinard. "Aside from a couple of team who shot unbelievable rounds, we held our own. Kyle (Kopsick) and Will (McCurdy) are continuing to impress with their form this spring."
Coming into the final day of competition, the top-10 teams' tightness of ranking began to take its toll as Auburn shot par to drop to seventh place.
LSU finished on top, followed by Wake Forest, Virginia, Augusta State and Duke.
"We had a good tournament, we just beat ourselves," Zickler said. "We had a couple of freak putts here and there and a couple of bad holes and that's the only thing that cost us the tournament. If we play our best and we're the toughest mentally, there aren't many teams out there that can beat us."
Auburn heads to Lexington this weekend to participate in the Bluegrass Invitational, a tournament hosted by the University of Kentucky. Other teams competing include the University of Akron, Austin Peay, Samford, Ball State and Miami.
Clinard said this weekend's tournament, as with competitions in the few weeks past, are all in preparation for the SEC Championship at the Frederica Club in Sea Island, Ga.
"I think we have a good chance at the SEC," Clinard said. "If we take care of ourselves we have a great chance to win any golf tournament we play in. Our guys are capable of winning a golf tournament and we're going to need all of them to win an SEC championship."
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