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Kansas in third place after first day

By Andrew Wituszynski

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

It was cold. It was windy. It was what the team wanted.

“When you’re playing on your own home course that’s exactly what you want,” coach Kit Grove said. “You want the course to play as tough as possible.”

Although the bad weather was perfect for the Jayhawks, they said they were not where they wanted to be after the first two rounds at the Kansas Invitational at Alvamar Monday. The team’s goal at the beginning of the tournament was to win, but after 36 holes and with only 18 left to play, the Jayhawks are in third place. Kansas is five strokes behind second-place Oklahoma and seven strokes behind first-place Missouri.

“It was a disappointing first day for us,” Dakota Dunes, S.D., junior Nate Barbee said. “If we have a good day tomorrow, though, we can come back and win it.”

Barbee shot one of the best rounds of the day, a 69 in round two, but said he was still disappointed. Barbee’s dad walked over as Barbee was looking at the scoreboard to tell him that he was in second place individually and Barbee said, “I know, but I’m more worried about the team’s score.”

Barbee is one stroke back going into the final round tomorrow, and he will be paired with the overall leader.

“I would love to have him win it all,” Grove said. “If he can stay in the hunt all the way until the last few holes, he has a great shot.”

Bryan Hackenberg, Denver, Colo., senior, shot a 74 and a 76, helping lead the team.

“He is becoming Mr. Consistent for us. A 75 or 76 is about as bad as he’ll ever shoot,” Grove said.

The play of Alex Gutesha, Greenwood Village, Colo., freshman, and Jeff Bell, Wichita freshman, was where the team took some hits. Bell is the reigning club champion at Alvamar and shot a 73 to start, but he shot an 81 in the second round.

“Jeff played really well this morning, but you never want to have to count an 81 as one of your four scores, but we had to and we’ll have to live with it,” Grove said.

Gutesha shot an 80 in the first round and an 86 in the second round. Gutesha shot rounds below par in each of the first two tournaments, but he was unable to do so in the first two rounds at Alvamar on Monday.

“Alex has great firepower and we need him to show it tomorrow if we’re going to win this. He just needs to eat something different tomorrow for breakfast than he did this morning,” Grove said.

The Jayhawks tee off at 8:30 a.m. today and are still in the hunt with 18 holes to go.

“We let it slip away from us a little bit, but we’re not too far behind,” assistant coach John Handrigan said. “We’re still within striking distance.”

— — Edited by Nick Gerik

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