STOCKTON, Calif. – Sophomore
Justin Kolb wrapped up a strong fall campaign with a career-low round of 70 on Wednesday afternoon at the Visit Stockton Invitational, pushing South Dakota into a 12th-place finish as a team at The Reserve at Spanos Park.
The Coyotes matched Santa Clara as the leaderboard's biggest movers on Wednesday, jumping from 14th to 12th with their strong final round. South Dakota finished the tournament with a 15-over 879 (302-290-287), its best score to par in four events this fall.
San Jose State was the wire-to-wire winner, outpacing No. 5 BYU by three strokes to claim the team title. Likewise, the Spartans' Sean Yu, who led after both the first and second rounds, claimed individual medalist honors by two strokes over Santa Clara's Matthew McCarty, the No. 32 golfer in the most recent Golfstat rankings.
Not only was Kolb's 70 the lowest single round of his career, it also punctuated a very consistent fall for the sophomore. In 12 rounds of action, Kolb shot 75 or better in all but one, the best mark for any Coyote in that category thus far in 2019. The Sioux Falls, S.D., native moved 17 spots up the leaderboard on the final day of play to tie for 40th and finished with a 54-hole total of 219 (75-74-70), matching his career-best set at the Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate earlier this fall.
Matt Tolan led the South Dakota card for the third straight event, closing at 217 (75-68-74) to tie for 28th. Both Tolan and Kolb finished ahead of nationally-ranked No. 74 Evan Peterson from St. Mary's.
Finishing just one stroke behind Kolb was
Ben Hicks (73-75-72 – 220), who tallied his best 54-hole score since the Ram Masters Invitational in mid-September.
Scott Fudenberg (79-73-71 – 223) and
Jacob Michel (83-77-84 – 244) closed out the card for the Coyotes, with Fudenberg's final-round 71 doubling as his second-best round of the fall, topped only by a 68 in the opening round of the Ram Masters Invitational.
Competing as an individual,
Hunter Paugh tallied a 237 (79-80-78) for the tournament.
With its fall schedule now in the books, South Dakota will have a break from competition until mid-February, when the Coyotes will make the trip to Florida to compete in the Martin Downs Collegiate on Feb. 14-16.
