Courtesy of UCR Athletics
Courtesy of UCR Athletics

The UC Riverside men’s golf team was back on the course in Palm Desert, California for the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate Tournament from Friday, Feb. 17 through Sunday, Feb. 19. The Highlanders were coming off of a rough outing in their previous tournament, the Pro Compression Invitational in San Diego held Monday thru Tuesday, in which they placed 11th out of the 12-team field.

Right out of the gate, it was more of the same for the Highlanders, as they finished round one with a team score of 312 led by sophomore Andrew Spillman’s 1-over-par 73. The rest of the travel squad was made up of junior Matt Lutz, seniors Sam Gillis and Pachara Sakulyong as well as sophomore Michael Wong who shot 78, 84, 85 and 77, respectively.

The second round of the tournament, however, was a completely different story as Gillis was able to revitalize his team with a much improved second round score of 69. Gillis began his round on the back nine and wasted no time by birdieing four of the first seven holes he saw with only a single bogey. He was able to par the reaming holes to keep him at 3-under-par, marking his 10th career round under par. The remaining Highlanders followed suit as well, with the entire team shedding 19 strokes from their total bringing them to a 293, good for the number 20 spot in the field and within eight strokes of the seven teams ahead of them. The remaining four Highlanders saw improvement as well, with Lutz carding a 76, Spillman a 74 and Wong and Sakulyong carding a 75.

For day three results and final team placing, visit gohighlanders.com.

The Highlanders are back on the course Monday, Feb. 27 to Tuesday, Feb. 28 for the Long Beach State Invitational at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, California.