Sept. 16, 2008

Results

MOBILE -- Junior Corey Bartlett finished tied for 17th to lead Louisiana Tech at the 13-team Palmer's Toyota Fall Intercollegiate hosted by South Alabama at Azalea City Golf Club.

As a team the Bulldogs struggled in Tuesday's final round and ended up ninth at the tournament. The host Jaguars won the event with a tournament total of 834 followed by Austin Peay (855), South Florida (856), Kennesaw State (860), New Orleans (864), Belmont (866), Louisiana-Monroe (869), Liberty (874), Tech (876), West Florida (877), Troy (889), Tennessee State (903) and Nicholls State (913).

Head coach Jean Hall said his team played very average in the event.

"We really didn't play bad the first two rounds (on Monday)," Hall said. "We shot two over and one under, but today we just didn't play well at all. We're not getting enough rounds under par and that is killing us.

"College golf has improved so much that even par today doesn't cut it. You have to shoot red numbers."

Bartlett shot a three-round total of 217, which included a second round three-under par 69.

"Corey had a nice round (Monday) and played well for us," Hall said. "However, as a team we just didn't play well today. We played average rounds the first two rounds but today we didn't, and average isn't going to be good enough."

In addition to Bartlett's performance, sophomore Clinton Shepard finished tied for 34th after shooting a final round 73 (221 total for the tournament).

"Clinton has been playing well for us," Hall said. "He medaled for us last week and shot our best round today."

Junior Matthew Harvey, who earned first team all-WAC honors last year, shot a 222 along with teammate Amrith de Soysa to finish in a tie for 40th.

"Matthew is the one we have been depending on for a long time to shoot under par and he still is not completely recovered from his surgery (last spring)," Hall said. "It's only been four and a half months and he's only played in about five tournaments. It's going to take a while for him to get back into it."

Red-shirt freshman Patrick Blunt, performing in his first collegiate event, finished tied for 45th (223) while true freshman Cody Santone tied for 53rd (225).

"I think both Patrick and Cody have great potential," Hall said. "They both have similar games. They are both very steady. They hit a lot of fairways and greens. Once they get accustom to college golf, I think both of them are going to be very good."

South Alabama's Marc-Etienne Bussieres won the individual competition with a three-round total of 11-under-par 205.