Tide Finishes 4th at Puerto Rico Classic
2/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
RIO GRANDE, PUERTO RICO ?? The University of Alabama golf team finished in fourth place at one over par for the tournament Tuesday at the Puerto Rico Classic. The 54-hole tournament, which featured a field of 18 teams and was hosted by Purdue, was held at the par 72 Westin Rio Mar Golf Course in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. It began on Sunday and continued through Tuesday.
It was Alabama’s fifth top five team finish this season out of its seven tournament appearances.
Alabama shot 280-294-291/865 to finish at one over after opening play as the first round leader at eight under. Georgia won the tournament’s championship, carding 281-283-279/843, minus 21. The Bulldogs finished four strokes ahead of Florida (284-284-279/847) which finished second at 17 under for the tournament. Oklahoma finished third (862), followed by Alabama (865), East Tennessee State (867), Arizona State (870), tied at 7th Purdue, Duke and Clemson (876), North Carolina State (878), Illinois (879), Texas (884), tied at 13th Kent State and Northwestern (885), Georgia Tech (886), Virginia Tech (892), Minnesota (900) and Michigan (906).
Georgia’s Chris Kirk (70-68-67/205) finished one stroke better than Oklahoma State’s Pablo Martin (68-67-71/206) to win the individual championship at 11 under par.
Joining them in the top 10 was Alabama’s Stewart Whitt. The Athens native shot 69-75-70/214 to finish two under par and among a tie at 8th place. One stroke back and among a tie at 14th was his teammate, Mark Harrell (70-73-72/215) who finished one under for the tournament.
Alabama’s Matthew Swan finished T-23rd (70-74-73/217) at one over. Gator Todd finished T-55th (71-77-76/224) and Max Alverio finished T-70th (79-72-76/227).
The next scheduled tournament for the Crimson Tide will be March 18-19 when it travels to Statesboro, Ga., for the EZ-GO Schenkel Invitational.
