Kansas State’s final tune-up before postseason play came at the Mossy Oak Collegiate, where the Wildcats finished in 11th place after a frustrating final round of 15 over par.
K-State entered the day sitting in eighth place at eight over par and had a chance to jump into the top five with a strong final round, as they were just five shots back. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they had the opposite and were too inconsistent with their play to get where they wanted on the final day.
“We are obviously disappointed in how we played today,” K-State head coach Grant Robbins said. “We really struggled with our ball striking this week, and it caught up with us on the back nine today. This course demands precision, especially on the approach shots and we did not execute consistently enough.”
The Wildcats again were led by senior Alex Lindstrom, who finished in a tie for 18th place and shot at even par for the entire tournament. Lindstrom’s tournament was highlighted by his opening round score of three under par, which got him off to a hot start in a tie for fourth place.
“I thought Alex had a solid tournament,” Robbins said. “He has been pretty consistent all year, and it was good to see him get another top-20 finish.”
While Lindstrom was right at even par, his teammates didn’t help him much to get closer to the top. The next highest K-State scorer was James Roller, who finished in 37th place at five over par, but he was playing as an individual, so his score didn’t count toward the team’s total.
In 40th place was Oliver Toyer, who shot a collective six over par, but five over on the final day, which dropped him 12 spots and took him out of a top 30 finish. Toyer’s best round was the second, where he finished at even par and had the potential to be right with Lindstrom in the top 20 if he had a good finish.
Rounding out the team scores for the Wildcats was Shea Harmeson, who landed in a tie for 69th place at 11 over par, and Ville Virkkala, who finished in 77th place at 14 over par. Harmeson in the second round shot two under par and had a score K-State needed at the time. However, his final round took away from that as he finished his final round at nine over.
“We will get back and look closely at the areas we need to improve on and get to work,” Robbins said. “This is a resilient group, and I know they will learn from this and have a strong performance at Big 12s.”
The next tournament for K-State is the Big 12 tournament, starting on Monday, April 27th, giving the Wildcats some time off to tune up their swings and get right for the tournament.