Final team results
Final individual results
The Long Beach State men’s golf team completed its first tournament of the spring on Tuesday, finishing 9th out of 14 teams at the Battle of the Beach Tournament at Pelican Hill Golf Course in Newport Coast.
UCLA, which co-hosted of the tournament, won in the team stroke total category, shooting 10- under par for the championship.
On the individual leaderboard, Arkansas’s David Lingmerth and Washington’s Chris Williams finished as co-champions at 8-under 205.
The 49ers struggled in the first two rounds but managed a respectable finish on the leaderboard.
“The golf course really defended itself well, set-up was certainly fair,” LBSU head coach Bill Poutre said. “The best team this week won. We’re looking forward to the same weekend again next year.”
The best individual showing from Long Beach was from freshman Raymond Ho who finished at 3-over par and a 31st overall.
“I feel like I didn’t play too bad,” Ho said. “Our team tried to hang in there but we didn’t do too well in the end. We played good the first day and the next two days we didn’t do too well, I guess, but we’ll get it back.”
The freshman said the team gained valuable experience playing against the loaded field.
“I feel like [the field we played against] is going to help a lot in the future,” Ho said. “Especially, three of us being freshmen. So I think it will help with experience in the future.”
Sophomore Kevin Roy finished right behind Ho, posting a 4-over 217 to land a 36th place finish.
Benjamin Lein, another freshman, shot a 7-over tournament score (46th overall) and classmate Philip Chian carded a 12-over mark (67th overall).
Senior Michael Drake tied for 81st with a three-round score of 22-over.
“As far as our guys, we competed well for a great deal of this event,” Poutre said. “We’re growing as a team, we’re young. … I’m going to equate it to our [Long Beach State] men’s basketball program.
“You look at our basketball program and we make some freshman mistakes. You look at our golf program and we make some freshman mistakes, but by the time we get to be juniors, I think we’re going to be a very, very talented program.”
The 49ers’ next shot to improve their scores will come on March 15th at the Triumph at Pauma Valley, a two-day, three-round tournament in Pauma Valley, Calif.
Tracy McDannald contributed to this article