South Alabama’s men’s golf team finished third at the Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas, Texas, narrowly missing out on first place by a single stroke. The Jaguars posted a team score of 833 (-31), while Southern California and Rice tied for the lead with scores of 832 (-32).
The Jaguars recorded the lowest single-round team score of the tournament during their second round, shooting 16-under-par. Their total score ranks as the second-lowest tournament total in program history and marks their third consecutive top-five finish to start the season.
The Trinity Forest Invitational was held from October 5-7 at Trinity Forest Golf Club. Sixteen teams participated, including SMU, Houston, Baylor, Furman, North Texas, East Tennessee State, UTRGV, Sam Houston, Abilene Christian, Louisiana, Cal Poly and UTSA.
Individually for South Alabama, Tim Kretschmann (69-68-70), Josh Hill (69-66-72), and Hugo Thyr (70-67-70) all tied for sixth place at nine under par. Samir Davidov finished tied for 18th after carding a season-low 68 in the final round. Filip Svendsen finished tied for 46th.
Head coach Ben Hannan said: “Great effort this week from the guys. We played well from the start and competed to the end. We got contributions from everyone and again showed the depth of this team.
This was a golf course where you could get impatience and press resulting in forced errors. This is something we’ve been focusing on and the guys did a solid job with it throughout the tournament. Will now turn our attention toward Steelwood and get back to it when we get home.”
The Jaguars excelled on par-five holes with a tournament-leading scoring average of 4.50 at 30-under-par. They also ranked second in both total birdies (69) and eagles (3). Three Jaguar players—Kretschmann, Hill and Thyr—finished inside the top ten individually.
Hugo Thyr posted his eighth career top-ten finish as a Jaguar and made 19 birdies over three rounds. Josh Hill has now shot seven rounds in the sixties this season.
South Alabama will next host its own event—the Steelwood Collegiate—in Loxley, Alabama on October 25-26.
For more information about South Alabama athletics or to support men’s golf through donations or season ticket purchases, visit www.usajaguars.com or jaguarathleticfund.com/birdieclub.
