After going well over par in the first two rounds, the UCF Men's Golf team went 2-under-par in Tuesday's final round to claim fourth place at the Prestige at PGA West golf tournament Tuesday.
"They continue to get better every week," UCF head coach Nick Clinard said of his team.
The Knights were led by the steady play of senior David Johnson. After shooting a 4-over-par 76 in the first round, he bounced back to fire rounds of 67 and 68 to finish 5-under-par, good enough for a third-place finish. He finished one shot behind Johan de Beer and Nate Pistacchio, who tied for individual honors at 6-under-par.
"It's just kind of one of those things where I felt like my back was up against the wall and I really had to put in a good round to help the team," Johnson said. "I just came out, was predetermined to do it and shot a good score."
The tournament was hosted by the University of California-Davis and Stanford at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.
Six of the top 30 teams in the nation competed in the two-day, 16-team event. The first 36 holes were played on Monday with the final 18 on Tuesday.
UCF was tied for fourth after the first day, trailing eventual winner Texas Christian University by 15 strokes. The Knights stayed put overall, though they turned in much improved final-round scores.
Simon Ward and Brad Schneider turned in a score of 71 for the Knights on Tuesday to go along with 74 by Greg Forest and Mike Stern for a combined score of 284. UCF shot 15-over-par 303 in the first round and 7-over-par 295 in the second round.
TCU claimed the win by going 3-under-par, led by de Beer.
Courses like PGA West are typically forgiving due to a desert landscape. Rough isn't as much of a factor, which allows for lower scoring.
Johnson took full advantage of the nice conditions in the second and third rounds, and the scoring average went down significantly. There were only two sub-par rounds through 18 holes Monday, compared to 12 later on in the day and 23 in the final round.
"[Johnson] played great other than a few mistakes in the first round and otherwise, he wins the golf tournament," Clinard said. "That's the way David should play. He's an elite player and he works hard at his game to play at our level."
The Knights struggled in their first two tournaments of the year, placing 14th and ninth.
Coach Clinard expected his team to come out playing better in the early part of the year based on a successful summer, but is more satisfied now that the Knights have gotten things going.
"There was definitely a sense of urgency to play well this week," Clinard said. "We knew we had to play well, otherwise our season was not looking too good."
Johnson said the team will need to build off their top-five finish and take the confidence from this event into their next tournament. UCF will host its next tournament, the Isleworth UCF Collegiate Invitational at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Fla. The tournament will begin Oct. 24 and run through Oct. 26.
The three-day event is widely recognized as one of the top tournaments in the country and will host 11 of the top 20 teams in the nation. Participating teams include No. 1 Oklahoma State and No. 3 Illinois, as well as 10 of the country's top-20 individual golfers.
"We're coming off a positive note," Clinard said. "Going into Isleworth, it's a tough tournament for us. It's a tough field and a tough golf course.
"Our expectations are just to get the guys to play to their capability and not to worry about what the other teams are doing."
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