Saluki Men's Golf fifth at South Florida Invite

SOUTH FLORIDA - The Southern Illinois men's golf team (+13) placed fifth at the South Florida Invitational after the final two rounds of play on Tuesday. No. 22-ranked South Florida (-10) won the tournament. Three Salukis finished in the top 15 - senior Peyton Wilhoit (-1) tied for sixth place, while senior Luke Gannon (+3) and freshman Matthis Besard (+3) both tied for 12th place in a field of 84 players.

"I think having three guys in the top 12 really shows the talent of your team," said SIU head coach Justin Fetcho. "I think for Peyton, Matthis and Luke to get tied for sixth and tied for 12th, was a really good confidence boost for them. Hunter York put together a really good round today. I hope they can take some positivity and momentum with them from today and continue to move forward".

Looking back at their 2018 performance at the South Florida Invitational, the Salukis placed in third but were 42 above par. The team shaved 29 shots off their score with an 877 this year.

Round two of the South Florida Invitational was paused yesterday and resumed this morning due to fog. SIU started the morning tied for second and ended round two in fifth place.

"We had some good individual performances this week. We had some guys really step up. We have a lot of talent here," said Fetcho. "We just haven't pieced it all together yet to play a full 18 holes. We're going to focus on the things we need to improve on so that we can continue to see better and better results. Each time we play better, but we came down here to win."

The Salukis head back to Carbondale to get ready for the Florida Atlantic Spring Break Challenge in Boca Raton, Florida on March 29-31, 2019.

Teams

1 South Florida 279 293 282 = 854 (-10)

T2 Illinois State 290 288 288 = 866 (+2)

T2 Elon 292 287 287 = 866 (+2)

4 Mercer 287 295 291 = 873 (+9)

5 Southern Illinois 291 292 294 = 877 (+13)

6 Chattanooga 303 291 298 = 892 (+28)

7 Louisiana Tech 292 304 298 = 894 (+30)

8 Georgetown 288 308 301 = 897 (+33)

9 Abilene Christian U. 296 299 307 = 902 (+38)

10 Delaware 304 294 308 = 906 (+42)

11 Central Arkansas 292 304 316 = 912 (+48)

12 Florida Atlantic 305 306 304 = 915 (+51)

T13 Florida A&M 311 302 310 = 923 (+59)

T13 Oakland 306 301 316 = 923 (+59)

15 Cleveland State 312 310 316 = 938 (+74)

Southern Illinois

T6 Peyton Wilhoit 73 69 73 = 215 (-1)

T12 Luke Gannon 71 73 75 = 219 (+3)

T12 Matthis Besard 72 74 73 = 219 (+3)

T29 Hunter York 75 76 73 = 224 (+8)

*T62 Vikar Jonasson 75 81 78 = 234 (+18)

T66 Tom Cleaton 80 77 80 = 237 (+21)

*T70 Sean Mullan 85 76 78 = 239 (+23)