MONTERREY, Mexico – Johannes Hounsgaard carded a six-under 66 in round three to climb to seventh place and lead Idaho to a tie for eighth place at the Monterrey International Invitational at Club Campestre in Monterrey.
Hounsgaard opened the tournament with an even-par 72 before improving to a four-under 68 in the second round of the tournament. He closed with his best round as a Vandal to finish the tournament at 10-under. It was his best finish as a Division I golfer.
I thought Johannes played fantastic, especially his last 45 holes," head coach
David Nuhn said. "He is really progressing into a top player on this team. He is showing that he's getting more comfortable being in the hunt. This week, he really showed he has the game to match his work ethic and great attitude."
Sam Johnson finished one-under for the tournament including an opening round two-under 70 and a final round, one-under 71. He finished tied for 25th overall.
Matt McGann was one-over for the tournament tied for 31st.
Dalton Dean closed the weekend tied for 35th at two-over, closing with a final-round 68 to move up 13 spots.
Joe Sykes finished out the team scoring at nine-over to tie for 52nd overall.
Playing as an individual,
Tommy Kimmel was 57th with a score of nine-over.
As a team, Idaho closed the weekend with a three-round score of 855, but the Vandals posted a third-round score that was ten strokes better than their second-best round.
"Overall, I think we hoped to play just a couple shots better per round in Mexico," Nuhn said. "The course was fair and conditions favorable for scoring. Hats off to the winners for some solid golf over three rounds. Dalton played a really strong final round of 68, taking advantage of some solid drives. A solid final round to finish the fall, and plenty shown to us to improve this winter season. It's not 'offseason,' it's 'improvement season' if we expect to see success next spring."
The Vandals enter "improvement season," with a four-month break before returning to action at the Loyola Intercollegiate on Feb. 25-27 at Palm Valley Golf Club in Phoenix.
