Oct. 24, 2007

SOMIS, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara golf team was in the middle of the pack after the first round of the ClubGlove Intercollegiate, but after the wind came up, the Gauchos struggled to an 11th-place finish with a 956 three-round team score.

As a team, UCSB shot a 956 to finish 92-over par at the Saticoy Country Club in Somis, Calif., in a tournament sponsored by Pepperdine.

After one round, the Gauchos had shot a 319, seventh best in the tournament, but the winds that drove the wild fires in Southern California on Monday and Tuesday got the best of UCSB. In the final two rounds, UCSB shot 321 and 316 to total 956 to finish 11th.

Pepperdine, the tourney host, scored a 905 to finish 10 shots ahead of fellow-West Coast Conference foe Loyola Marymount for the team title. Georgia State, which finished third with a 929, 24 shots behind Pepperdine, had the individual winner. Joel Sjoholm shot a 9-over par 225 to win by a shot over Pepperdine's Andrew Putnam, who shot a 10-over par 226.

Individually, UCSB was paced by sophomore Matt Grush who tied for 21sth with a score of 235, 19-over par. Freshman Tyler Weir finished 26th, all by himself, with a score of 21-over par, 237.

Sophomore Brian Hollenbeck, who won the Bill Cullum Invitational last week, ranked third among Gauchos by logging a 23-over par 239. Freshman Michael Casca's 29-over par 245 ranked him tied for 49th and senior Darren Schwartz, who shot 43-over par, finished 62nd.

UCSB will travel to the Del Walker Intercollegiate at Long Beach State on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 25-26.