Bentwater Intercollegiate
German, Kats claim Bentwater Intercollegiate
2/13/2024 3:49:00 PM | Men's Golf
MONTGOMERY – Josh German and the Sam Houston men's golf team finished off an ideal start to its spring by claiming the individual and team titles at the 2024 Bentwater Intercollegiate at Bentwater Country Club.Â
German followed up a second-round 67 on Monday with a tournament-low 66 in Tuesday's final round, finishing seven shots under par with a three-round total of 206, two shots ahead of Tarleton's Max Bengtsson. It was the first collegiate win for the Mabank native.Â
"It was pretty cool to get the individual win," German said afterwards. "The entire final round I had no idea because I didn't look at the leaderboard, but I felt like I was probably in first place just by the way I was playing. But until I holed the final putt and Coach Kieschnick told me where we were at, I had no idea of the situation I was in. It's a lot of validation of the work I've put in."Â
But it was not just German's effort that propelled the Kats to their first win of the 2023-24 season as Bret Gray (5th) and Ting-Wei Hsiesh (T8th) each also turned in top-10 finishes of their own to help Sam Houston finish at +3 for the tournament, 17 shots ahead of second-place WKU.Â
"We challenged the guys to come back after a slow fall to come back and have their minds, bodies and games in shape and ready to go," head coach Brandt Kieschnick said after the win. "I think they did. We had an unbelievable two-and-a-half weeks of practice leading up to this week, and what we did these past two days is just more of what we have been doing during that time in practice."Â
Gray turned in a one-over 72 in the final round to finish 75-67-72 for the week, while Hsieh shot even par on both the front and back nines to cap his week with a 71. Gene Chaikangwal went 73-73-74 for the week to finish in a tie for 20th, and Samual McKenzie improved each day to fire a 77-73-72 and finish in a tie for 30th.Â
Meanwhile, in individual play, Hugo Trommetter rebounded from an opening-round 78 to go 70-73 in the last two rounds and finish in 26th and Kittada Kosalutta finished tied for 51st with an 83-74-70 for his week.Â
"We played five qualifying rounds leading up to this week and really treated each one like a tournament," Kieschnick said. "We were ready to go by tournament time, had seen every pin and felt like we'd ironed out a lot of deficiencies in our game."Â Â
German started the day off just one shot off the pace, but quickly leapt into the lead when he chipped in for an eagle on the Par-5 first. From there he fired off five consecutive pars before scoring again by pouring in two straight birdies on Nos. 7 and 8 and making the turn at –4 for the day. Â
"It was a great start," German said. "I just wanted to give myself chances for birdie and on the first I hit a great chip and it happened to go in. I never saw it go in, I just heard it, and that was a great way to settle into the round."Â
His one miscue of the day came on the Par-3 11th when he carded a bogey; however, he made that up with a birdie on the Par-3 13th and added another on No. 16 before draining a 12-footer for par on the 18th hole of the round for the win.Â
The Kats will next head south to Laredo to take part in the Border Olympics, hosted by Houston. The first two rounds from Laredo Country Club are set for Monday, February 19 with the final 18 holes set for the following day.
Hear from head coach @BrandtK_SHSU following today's tournament win at the Bentwater Intercollegiate. pic.twitter.com/kWPNE93soJ
— Sam Houston Men's Golf (@BearkatsMGolf) February 13, 2024
Josh German fired a three-round, 7-under to claim his first collegiate title at the Bentwater Intercollegiate. #EatEmUpKats pic.twitter.com/PSnrKlP2uY
— Sam Houston Men's Golf (@BearkatsMGolf) February 13, 2024
