K-State Slips on Final Round of Trinity Invitational

Sunday, September 22

Dallas, Texas

Kansas State University

Trinity Forest Invitational

Sep 24, 2019 | Men's Golf

Results

DALLAS, Texas – The K-State men's golf team couldn't bounce back after a slow start, and fell seven spots on the final day of the Trinity Invitational after shooting an 11-over par 295 and finishing the tournament at 14-over par 866.

Freshman Riccardo Leo continued his strong start to his Wildcat career, as the former Italian national team member finished even-par 71, the best third round score of any K-State golfer. Leo tied with senior teammate Jacob Eklund, and finished tied for 41^st, finishing 2-over par 215. Eklund was able to bounce back following a tough stretch of holes with two birdies in his final three holes.

Senior Ben Fernandez tallied a 2-over par 73 in the final round. The Southland, Texas native tallied a 4-over par 217 and finished tied for 49^th. Juniors Kyle Vance and George Clarke both shot 5-over par 76's on Tuesday, as

Vance's 10-over par and tie for 76th put him one stroke ahead of Clarke, who finished tied for 80^th.

"It was a disappointing round today," head coach Grant Robbins said. "We had a couple of guys get off to bad starts and I thought we would be able to get it back on our second 9 however we just kept missing putts and couldn't get anything going. We have a talented team. We have to be tougher mentally and basically just have to get better all around. We have some adversity right now but I know what these guys are capable of. Right now we have to get back up, dust ourselves off and commit ourselves to working harder than ever and improve a little bit each day."

Arizona State secured the team title and the individual title, as the seventh ranked Sun Devils shot 30-under par 822 behind Alex del Rey's 16-under par 197 put him as the only player to have under 200 strokes.

K-State will return in a couple weeks at the Big 12 Match Play Championship on October 11^th. Last year, the Wildcats finished in 6^th out of 10, including a win over Iowa State and a tie against Oklahoma in the inaugural Big 12 Match Play Championship.