The Wyoming Cowboy golf team took victory as they won their Battle in the Tetons tournament on Tuesday. They defeated their nearest opponent by a total of 36 strokes. In Victor, Idaho at the Headwaters Golf Club in Teton Springs Resort, the Cowboys fired a final round 285 (-3) to run away from the eight-team field with a three-round score of 847 (-17). UW’s 54-hole 17-under 847 is the best team tournament score in school history.
The team victory is the first team title in head coach Joe Jensen’s tenure at Wyoming. It is also the first tournament victory for a UW team since the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate in 2000. After holding the 36-hole lead, junior Eddie Stewart fired his third under-par round of the tournament of 71 (-1) to win the individual title by five strokes with a total score of 208 (-8). Stewart’s eight-under is tied for the third-best tournament score in Wyoming golf history.
“This is a great start to our fall season,” Jensen said. “The kids played three excellent rounds of golf yesterday and today. I am very proud of them to shoot three rounds under par. We were the only team to be under-par for three rounds. I don’t care who you are playing, if you shoot three rounds under par you are always going to be competitive in any tournament. We took one round at a time this tournament and we never were complacent, increasing our lead each round.”
Stewart won the individual title of the 48-man field to lead the Cowboy scoring. Two other Cowboys recorded top-three finishes. Junior Eric Parish, who was in second place following yesterday’s rounds shot a final round 76 (+4) to finish in a tie for third place with a score of 214 (-2). True freshman Kamrin Allen fired the low individual round of the day for the tournament at 68 (-4) to move up from 11th place to finish tied with Parish for third place. Allen recorded a top-five finish in his first collegiate event. Jake Hedge also finished in the top 10 for Wyoming shooting a final round 77 (+5) to finish with a final score of 219 (+3) to tie for ninth place. Junior Brent Baylon shot his first under-par round of the season firing a two-under 70 to finish in a tie for 15th place with a score of 221 (+5).
The Cowboys won the tournament title by 36 shots over Valparaiso who took second with a final tally of 883 (+19). Utah State and Utah Valley tied for third place with three-round scores of 888 (+24). In fifth place was Southern Utah (891, +27), followed by host Weber State in sixth (892, +28), South Dakota State in seventh (898, +34) and Westminster College (Utah) in eighth (910, +46).
Stewart ran away with the tournament championship with the five-shot victory over Valparaiso’s Austin Gaugert who shot a final round 71 (-1) to finish with a final score of 213 (-3). Gaugert topped third place Cowboys Parish and Allen (214, -2) by one stroke. Rounding out the top five was Utah State’s Tanner Higham with a final score of 215 (-1).
Wyoming golf will return to the course Sunday, Sept. 9 and Monday, Sept. 10 in Colorado Springs, Colo. at the Gene Miranda Air Force Invitational.
“This was a great victory for us, but we cannot take anything for granted,” Jensen said. “We need to keep working hard the rest of the fall season. We have some things we are going to work on the rest of this week and go out and play as hard as we can next Sunday and Monday.”
