The Gophers shot a team score of 891 in their second event of the spring season, the Puerto Rico Classic.
Minnesota finished in a tie for 12th place at the 15-team tournament in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, which wrapped on Tuesday. Minnesota defeated Michigan and Virginia Tech.
“As a competitor, we’re always a little bit disappointed that we didn’t finish off today the way we had hoped to. But going into the tournament, we were the lowest-ranked team,” head coach John Carlson said. “To come out of there with wins against Virginia Tech and Michigan will certainly serve us well in the rankings.”
Senior Jon Dutoit had the lowest individual score for the Gophers with a combined score of 222 over three rounds. He tied for 44th place.
Junior Justin Doeden ended with one more stroke than his teammate and tied for 49th place.
The Gophers had a team score of 299 during the first round of the tournament, with DuToit shooting a 70.
Minnesota improved its score to 292 in the second round with three golfers improving their scores from their first time through the course. Sophomore Runar Arnorsson shot a 70 the second round, a seven stroke improvement over his first round score.
“The second day [had the calmest conditions] we had over the three days,” Carlson said. “Runar was definitely a little bit more acclimated to the golf course, but he did play in 2015 out there so he’s had six or seven rounds under his belt on that golf course. He just really putted well to be able to shoot a low score that day.”
The team closed out the tournament with a 300 in the final round to tie for 12th place. Doeden led the team with a score of 70 in the third round.
On a different course, juniors Grady Meyer and Jose Mendez placed in the Puerto Rico Individual. Meyer had a three-round score of 219 on the par-71 course and tied for ninth place among the 13 golfers competing.
Mendez took 13th with a score of 228.
