A Californian tournament saw a Big Ten showdown in The Prestige at PGA WEST in La Quinta, Calif.
Minnesota senior Clayton Rask and Wisconsin junior Dan Woltman tied for medalist honors with 8-under-par 208s. It was the second weekend in a row that Rask has tied for medalist honors.
“Everything feels good,” Rask said. “I am really confident with everything.”
As a team the Gophers tied for ninth place with Colorado. Minnesota shot a team 17-over-par 881 for the tournament.
Tournament champion Charlotte shot a team 10-under par 854.
Minnesota began the tournament by shooting an opening round 290. They were lead by Rask, who continued his hot play of a week ago.
In the second round, the Gophers regressed and shot a 300.
Rask opened up his tournament play by shooting matching 4-under-par 68s. Rask’s day was good enough to put him in first place with a three shot lead over three other golfers.
Those golfers were Charlotte senior Andrew Dibietto, Michigan senior Tim Schaetzel and Wisconsin junior Dan Woltman.
But as good as Rask was, his teammate senior Andy Paulson was equally as bad.
Paulson started off the first round by shooting a 3-over-par 75, but would only get worse. He followed his first-round score by shooting a 17-over-par 89.
“I hit it everywhere you couldn’t,” Paulson said.
Hitting the ball behind bushes and not being able to find a couple of balls were major problems, Paulson said.
Paulson’s struggles caused him to drop from a tie at 48th after the first round to dead last in 83rd place.
But after struggling so mightily the first day of the tournament, Paulson came back with a new attitude for the final round.
It showed as he shaved 14 strokes off his second-round score by shooting a 3-over-par 75 to finish with a 23-over-par 239 for the weekend.
Improving his score so dramatically showed Paulson how well he could play in the final round, he said.
Also factoring into the Gophers scoring were junior Victor Almstrom, sophomore Ben Pisani and senior Patrick Datz. Datz shot a 13-over-par 229, Almstrom fired a 5-over-par 221 and Pisani shot a 9-over-par 225.