A day after breaking the school record for the lowest team round, the Nevada men’s golf team re-wrote the record book again after a birdie barrage at the Pacific Invitational.
The Wolf Pack fired a 24-under 264 as a team on Wednesday in the final round of the 12-team tournament and finished a shot off the pace of champion Kansas State. Sophomore Taylor Knoll carded a career-low round of 64, eight shots under par and juco transfer Ryan Mulvany had a career-low 65 on Wednesday as each tied for third place individually.
The round of 264 marked the lowest team score in a single round in the history of the Pacific Invitational.
Nevada opened the day 10 shots off the lead and the Wolf Pack was all the way back in ninth place after Monday’s first round. But a then-school-record round of 269 (19 under) on Tuesday put Nevada back in the hunt and the Pack followed that up with Wednesday’s blistering round of 24 under.
“I’m really proud of our team. That was a pretty awesome rally,” Nevada coach Jacob Wilner said. “To be in ninth place and come all the way back and make up that much ground to finish second, that shows a lot of our team. I’m happy for them.”
Sophomore Zak Griffiths shot a 2-under 70 on Wednesday and tied for 21st. Brian Knoll also carded a career-low as his round of 67 vaulted him up to a tie for 28th. Gustavo Chuang shot 68 on Wednesday and tie for 41st.
The tie for second was the best finish of the year so far for Nevada, which also placed third at the Ram Masters Invitational to open the season. Individually, the third-place tie by Taylor Knoll and Mulvany marks the low finish by a Nevada player this year.
“We’ve had some ups and downs this fall so to finish on such a high note like this going into our break is a good feeling,” Wilner said. “When you are throwing out 70s on back-to-back days, that’s a good thing. We’ve played 12 competitive rounds this year and we were the low round of the day in four of them and that’s a good indicator of the ability of this team.”
The tournament marked the end of the fall season for Nevada. The Pack will return to action in February at the John Burns Intercollegiate in Hawaii.
