After finishing third at their season-opening event two weeks ago, No. 13 Auburn men’s golf built on that success with a second-place finish at the Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas, Texas.
The 13-team field included 10 nationally ranked teams, including No. 6 Texas, No. 8 Southern California, No. 9 Oregon, No. 10 Florida, No. 17 Clemson, No. 22 Texas Tech, and No. 24 Pepperdine. The tournament’s venue, Trinity Forest Golf Club, will host the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson in 2018.
The Tigers finished the 54-hole event tied with Texas Tech for second at -7 overall, ten strokes behind tournament winner No. 10 Florida. No. 6 Texas finished fourth at 5-under while Clemson (-1), North Texas (-1), Oregon (+8), Iowa (+11), Kansas State (+15), and Pepperdine (+16) rounded out the top ten.
Auburn entered the final round tied for the lead with Florida, but shot 1-over par on Tuesday to finish well behind the Gators. Playing in just their second college event, freshmen Brandon Mancheno and Wells Padgett led the Tigers finishing T-3 and T-11 respectively.
After both Mancheno and Padgett opened with 3-under 68s, Mancheno made four birdies on numbers one, 10, 11, and 14 on his way to another 68 in the second round. The Jacksonville, Florida native was tied for the individual lead at 6-under with Southern California’s Justin Suh after 36 holes.
Padgett was tied for third after 36 holes after making birdies on numbers five, six, 10, and 14 and shooting 70.
After two great rounds in windy, dry conditions with difficult pin placements, Mancheno and Padgett couldn’t quite replicate that success in the final round, posting rounds of 71 and 74 respectively.
“I am very pleased with the way we played against a very strong field,” Auburn coach Nick Clinard said. “Both our freshman, Brandon [Mancheno] and Wells [Padgett], had outstanding tournaments, finishing third and 11th. Jovan had a final round 69 as he and Jacob both were in the top 20.”
Sophomore Jovan Rebula tied for 17th at even par after a third-round 2-under par 69 that included five birdies. Junior Jacob Solomon tied for 20th at even par with rounds of 71, 71, and 72 and Trace Crowe finished T-46 after posting three consecutive 73s. Andrew Kozan, who competed as an individual, finished T-55 at 9-over.
Auburn will return to action at the Jerry Pate National October 9-10 at Old Overton in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
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