UA men finish 4th in Florida
The University of Arkansas men’s team had its best round of the tournament with a pair of eagles as part of a final-round 7-under to finish at the Valspar Collegiate on Tuesday in Palm City, Fla.
No. 11 Florida State maintained its large lead and logged a 19 under to win by four strokes over No. 3 Vanderbilt.
Arkansas moved up a spot to finish one spot behind No. 4 Arizona State, which came in at 10 under after shooting 7 under on Tuesday.
Senior Christian Castillo had his best tournament as a Razorback by tying for second place on the 7,114-yard Floridian Course. The transfer from High Point opened his round with an eagle on the 637-yard fifth hole and carded a 4-under 67 to finish at 9 under, tied with Vanderbilt’s Matthew Riedel five strokes behind medalist Luke Clanton of Florida State.
“I’m very proud of the team this week,” Arkansas Coach Brad McMakin said. “It was a great effort by the entire lineup from top to bottom. I’m most proud that we finished strong and did so against an NCAA Championship caliber field.”
Arkansas senior Jacob Skov Olesen was rolling at 2 under through five holes before posting a triple-bogey 7 on the 11th hole then battling back to a round of 70. He tied for for 16th place at 1 under.
Senior John Driscoll had a 71 on Tuesday and tied for 22nd place. Freshman Thomas Curry had an eagle on the 529-yard 13th and roared back from a rough opening day to shoot 4-under 67 and tie for 51st at 6 over for the tournament.
Junior Manuel Lozada had a non-scoring 74 on Tuesday and finished tied for 57th at 7 over.
“We’ve had some great results this year but left a couple of tournaments with a sour taste due to our final rounds,” McMakin said. “Christian played his best college tournament and carried us this week. The rounds by Christian and Thomas today were instrumental in our finish.”
Rounding out the top 10 was Oklahoma in fifth place at even par, Duke (1 over), Texas A&M (3 over), North Carolina (4 over), Wake Forest (6 over) and a tie for 10th between Alabama and Texas at 7 over.