Temple goes west, but struggles in Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational

   Brian Quinn took his Temple Owls west for last weekend’s Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational and it was pretty much a struggle, at least on the golf course.

   It’s never a bad idea, though, to seek some new and better competition, to tee it up in some unfamiliar surroundings, to get in a little team bonding, particularly with some of your younger players. From that standpoint, the trip was no doubt a success.

   Temple was the only eastern interloper in a field of western schools and had trouble solving The Reserve at Spanos Park, a 7,082-yard, par-72 layout in Stockton, Calif., finishing 19^th in the 20-team field when the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational wrapped up Saturday.

   Santa Clara, the highest-ranked team in the field at No. 22 in the latest Golfstat rankings, certainly had no trouble in the final round on its way to the team title with an impressive 30-under 834 total. Nor did No. 29 Brigham Young and No. 88 St. Mary’s, which finished 2-3 with respective totals of 26-under 838 and 16-under 848.

   Santa Clara fired a final round of 16-under 272 and Brigham Young and St. Mary’s had matching 15-under 273 final-round scores. Nevada matched par in the final round with a 288 to finish fourth at 11-undere 853 and Grand Canyon had a final round of 1-under 287 to take fifth at 8-under 856.

Temple opened with a 7-over 295, carded a 303 in the second round and finished up with a 9-over 297 in posting a 31-over 895 total.

   John Barone, a redshirt junior from Dunmore, led the way for the Owls as he finished tied for 51^st at 4-over 220. He opened with the Owls’ only sub-par round of the weekend, a 2-under 70 and added rounds of 76 and 74.

   Trey Wren, a junior from Suffolk, Va., finished tied for 72^nd at 223 after a final round of 2-over 74. Junior Sam Soeth, a former Marple Newtown standout, recovered from an opening-round 80 with rounds of 73 and 74 to finish tied for 89^th at 227.

   Temple’s two talented freshmen, Liam McGrath, an Academy of the New Church product, and Dawson Anders, a Souderton product and winner of the Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Boys’ Championship last summer, both landed at 231, tied for 99^th. McGrath finished up with a 76 while Anders had a final-round 75.

   Santa Clara was led by Hayden Shieh, a senior from Fremont, Calif., and Matt McCarthy, a sophomore form Scottsdale, Ariz., both of whom finished tied for ninth at 7-under 209. Shieh matched the sizzling final round posted by individual champion Patrick Fishburn, a senior at Brigham Young from Ogen, Utah, with a 7-under 65. McCarthy contributed a 5-under 67 to Santa Clara’s sparkling 16-under final-round total.

   Two other Broncos, both freshmen, finished among a group tied for 14^th at 5-under 211. Zackary Kaneshiro of Honolulu, Hawaii had a final round of 1-under 71 and Jack Avrit of San Luis Obispo, Calif., had a final round of 3-under 69.

   Derek Ackerman, a junior from Half Moon Bay, Calif., finished tied for 18^th with a 3-under 213 total. His final-round 74 was tossed, but Ackerman’s opening-round 66 was a big spark for the Broncos.

   Fishburn opened with a 2-under 70 and then surged to the title with rounds of 66 and 65 that gave him a 13-under 203 total and the individual title.

   South Dakota’s Tommy Viring, a junior from Sioux Falls, S.D. closed with a 6-under 66 to finish a shot behind Fishburn in second at 12-under 204. Nevada’s Grant Booth, a senior from Australia, had a pair of 68s in the last two rounds to finish third at 10-under 206.