Feb. 16, 2010
Final Results
HOUSTON - Louisiana Tech sophomore Jonathan Bale shot a final round 72 to finish in ninth place in the 10th annual Rice Intercollegiate held at Westwood Golf Club Monday and Tuesday.
Bale shot a three-round total of 10-over-par 226 to lead the Bulldogs to an eighth place finish in the 15-team field which included some of the top teams in the country. Bale's final round 72 was the fifth best score of the day and the sixth best of the entire tournament.
His ninth place finish was his second best of the year, trailing only an eighth-place finish in the David Toms Intercollegiate hosted by LSU in the fall.
One day after shooting team totals of 315 and 316, Jeff Parks' team bounced back to fire a third round team total of 297 - the third best team total of the third round trailing only team champion Rice (292) and Kansas (296).
"We hung in there," said Tech head coach Jeff Parks. "We did a nice job with damage control today. Yesterday the conditions were as tough as I've seen them with cold and wind. I think the average scores were over 79 which tells you something.
"Today, we had some low rounds going and the wind picked up and we weren't able to quite finish them off. We did play well today. Jonathan finished in the top 10; he played well. For the first tournament of the year, we got some stuff to work on this week before we head down to New Orleans."
The Bulldog's also received a strong third round showing by Joel Thelen who fired a one-over-par 73 and finished with a three round total of 236, tied for 45th place out of 81 competitors.
Senior Matthew Harvey tied for 38th in the event with a total of 234, although he struggled in Tuesday's competition with a final round 80. Cody Santone (85-80-75=240, T54th) and Cody Blankenship (84-80-77=241, T58th) round out the Bulldog competitors in the first event of the spring season.
Rice (886) won the event followed by Auburn (905), Pacific (909), Kansas (921), Nebraska (923), Florida Gulf Coast (924), Houston (927), LA Tech (928), Miami (929), Missouri State (931), Northern Colorado (933), New Orleans (935), UL-Monroe (943), Houston Baptist (952) and Hartford (999).
Rice's Chris Brown won the individual competition firing a final round 69 to win by four strokes over teammate Michael Whitehead. Brown ended the three rounds with a total of even par 216.
Tech returns to action next week when it travels to New Orleans to compete in the UNO Mardi Gras Invitational hosted at TPC Louisiana.
