After day one at the Kansas Invitational, Nate Barbee, Dakota Dunes, S.D., junior was tied for second place individually. On Tuesday, Barbee chalked up a 68 and took home the first place trophy. Barbee won the tournament with a three-round total score of 211. The second-place finisher scored 214.

“I guess it’s good.”

That was all Barbee had to say, standing there with a first place trophy in his hands and taking pictures with his family, who had traveled from South Dakota to be in Lawrence for the tournament.

Barbee said his lack of excitement was because he wished the team would have won the tournament overall.

“It’s disappointing that we didn’t pull this one off as a team,” Barbee said, “Especially when we were so close.”

Kansas finished in a three-way tie for second place with Missouri and Louisiana-Lafayette. Each team scored a total of 888 strokes. Oklahoma won with 886 strokes.

“It was a real heartbreaker to come that close and not win,” coach Kit Grove said. “The 81 that we had to take yesterday really killed us.”

Grove’s Jayhawks have started off the season by finishing in third place in their first tournament and now back-to-back second place finishes.

“This is the best start we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Grove said. “I’m also really happy for Nate. He’s been so close lately and has been getting frustrated; now he finally got a win.”

Assistant coach John Handrigan also said he was happy for Barbee.

“It was great for him to get his first win. Now that he has one under his belt, the floodgates are going to open for him,” Handrigan said.

Barbee’s victory can be attributed to his hard work ethic. After the 36 holes on Monday, Barbee was the only player to stay and practice his putting. Everyone else went home because it was dark and they had already played 36 holes, but not Barbee.

“It’s no fluke that Barbee won this tournament,” Grove said. “There is always a silver Equinox in the parking lot with South Dakota plates. It might be bad advertising for Chevrolet because people are going to think the car is broken down because it’s there so much.”

In a college golf tournament, every coach gets to walk the course with one player. In the first few tournaments Grove has been walking with one of the freshmen, but Grove chose to walk with Barbee on Tuesday.

“It’s tough to be out there alone for five hours when you’re in contention for winning a tournament. I just tried to keep him loose and it’s always nice to have another voice out there.”

Coach Handrigan said he felt like Grove walking with Barbee helped him stay focused.

Barbee, still focused on the team’s play, said he was looking forward to the rest of the season,

“We didn’t get first, but we’ve started off well this year,” Barbee said. “We didn’t even play that well and we still only lost by two strokes. That shows that we can play with some really good teams.”

— — Edited by Sara Kelly