RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — With a pair of top-20 individual finishes, the University of Michigan men’s golf team posted an 874 total to close seventh today (Tuesday, Feb. 24) at Puerto Rico Classic held at the Rio Mar Country Club’s River Course.
In U-M’s 13 consecutive appearance in Purdue’s annual spring event, Kyle Mueller guided U-M in Sunday’s (Feb. 22) opening round as he posted the Wolverines’ top round of the day with a one-under 71, which included five birdies. Tom Swanson carded an even-par 72 to get the Maize and Blue to a 296 and the seventh-place position among the 15 team field that featured 13 of the top 100 teams in the nation.
In Monday’ (Feb. 23) second round, Reed Hrynewich took over as his six-birdie performance led to a career-best five-under 67; his round tied two others as the day’s lowest round. After opening with an 81, Chris O’Neill rebounded in the second round, dropping 10 strokes as he fired his first of his two straight one-under 71s to give U-M two sub-par rounds on the day. Adding an even-par 72 from Mueller, U-M finished with an even par 288 to maintain its seventh position on the leaderboard.
In today’s final round, the Wolverines started off the back nine and got off to a solid start, holding a one-over team score as they made the turn to the front. The River Course’s opening three holes were not kind as U-M played them at seven over par to slip back all the way to 11th place. Back-to-back birdies from Swanson and Brett McIntosh on Nos. 4 and 5 helped the Wolverines rally back in the final round as they closed with a two-over 290 total.
Individually, Hrynewich’s first career sub-par 54 tournament total of one-under 215 (75-67-73) gave him his third career top-20 finish as he tied for 14th to lead U-M for the first time in his career. After a strong start, Mueller posted his third top-20 performance of the season, tying for 17th at even-par 216 (71-72-73). Rebounding from his opening 81, O’Neill tied for 37th at 223 (81-71-71). Rounding out U-M’s starters were Swanson finishing 44th at 224 (72-78-74) and McIntosh tying for 58th at 230 (78-79-73).
The Wolverines return to Ann Arbor for the remainder of the week before heading to Arizona this Saturday (Feb. 28) for their annual spring break training. At the conclusion of the week, U-M will host the 2015 Desert Mountain Intercollegiate Friday and Saturday (March 6-7) at the Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The two-day, 54-hole event will be played on the Outlaw Course and feature a 12-team field.
