Southern Illinois University
MVC Championships
Men's Golf falters, finishes eighth at MVC Championship
04/26/2011 | 12:00:00 | Men's Golf
April 26, 2011
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
SUNRISE BEACH, Mo. - For the first time since 2003, the Southern Illinois men's golf team finished outside of the top-four at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
The Salukis finished where they started, wrapping up the tournament one stroke out of last place to finish eighth. As a team SIU shaved 11 strokes off its first round score, carding identical rounds of 311 the second and third time on the course, but that was not enough to get it out of the hole as the final scorecard read 944.
"We are all disappointed in the way we performed," said head coach Leroy Newton. "Everyone knows we didn't play up to our potential. It seemed like everything we tried turned out backwards. We have no excuses."
Brandon Cauldwell filled his spot as the Dawgs' top golfer, posting two rounds of 75 on Tuesday to finish in a tie for 11th place overall. Jake Erickson (74-79-80) also finished inside the top-20, capturing 19th place.
In his last tournament as a Saluki, David Griffin followed Cauldwell's lead putting both of his rounds in the 70s on the second day of competition, landing him 23rd place with a 54-hole score of 235.
George Tate (83-84-81=248) and Richie Williams (85-81-87=253) rounded out the effort for Southern.
With Griffin being the only senior on the roster, nearly all of the young Saluki lineup will be back next year.
"I think in the end today our inexperience caught up to us," Newton said. "We are young but we just weren't able to perform up to what we had done in the past."
Wichita State took the Valley's team title for the fourth consecutive year, shooting a combined score of 903.
Players Mentioned
