SUGAR LAND, Texas – Max Bengtsson continued his tear on the course on Monday-Tuesday, taking silver for the second straight tournament, his third top-two finish over his last four events. Teammate Alvaro Huidobro finished tied-fifth for the Texans to lead Tarleton State at the Colin Montgomerie Invitational in Sugar Land.
 
Both Bengtsson and Huidobro turned in under-par efforts in all three rounds at Sweetwater Country Club, Bengtsson firing two -5 rounds and Huidobro shooting -4 to end the tournament. Bengtsson placed second in the 80-man field at -12 (67-70-67) and Huidobro finished tied-fifth at -8 (70-70-68).
 
The Texans took sixth out of 15 teams, as they were rounded out by Carson Gallaher at +4 (72-73-75, tied-47th), Bladen Samaniego at +7 (74-73-76, tied-54th) and Chandler Barch at +16 (77-79-76, tied-76th).
 
"It was another great week for Max and it's good to see him keep building on that confidence," head coach Chance Cain said. "This week was a little different with his ball striking being a little off, but he scored really well. He has worked really hard on his short game this year and it showed by converting a lot of par saves when he needed to. So it's good for him to see when he doesn't have his best that he can still compete to the top of the leaderboard."
 
Bengtsson added to his terrific sophomore campaign with his third top-two finish in his last four tournaments, and his fourth top-20 result of the season. He tied atop the field in Par 5 scoring at -10, averaging a 4.17 gross score on Par 5's, scoring two eagles and 14 birdies throughout the 54-hole event.

Bengtsson had a great start to the tournament, posting an eagle on his second hole, then he holed three straight birdies after the turn to find himself -5 through 12. He finished the round at -5 (67). After a -2 effort in Round 2 with five birdies and three bogeys, Bengtsson again played a near spotless round on Tuesday, posting another eagle on the same hole (No. 2), plus adding birdies on holes 10-12 again.  
 
In the three tournaments he's finished in the top-two recently, Bengtsson has shot -15, -5 and -12, respectively.
 
"I'm super happy for Alvaro too and it's good to see his hard work pay off by putting three solid rounds together to get his first top-five finish," Cain said. "He's had a new attitude going into the semester and he's putting in the work to be a more well-rounded player. It's always good to see when two guys finish in the top-five, and we will keep improving through our last part of the spring season."
 
Huidobro shot back-to-back rounds of 70 on Monday, opening his day with seven birdies in the first round and four birdies in Round 2. On Tuesday, Huidobro shot a career-best -4 (68), rebounding from a bogey on his first hole with a -4 stretch over his next nine.
 
Huidobro shot the most birdies across the entire tournament with 18. He was also tied-fifth in Par 4 scoring at -3, averaging a 3.9 gross score. His top-five finish was the best of his career, surpassing his tied-30th finish just a few weeks ago at the Bentwater Intercollegiate.  
 
Gallaher had his best round in Round 1, going -2 over his nine holes to finish even through 18. He shot the tied-seventh most pars in the tournament with 37. Samaniego had the tied-third most pars with 38.
 
Tarleton's team score was their second best of the season, only behind their third place -26 (838) efforts at the Monterrey International Invitational in October. NMJC won the tournament in Sugar Land at -17 (847). Houton's Jacob Borrow was the medalist at -16 (66-65-69).
 
The Texans are now halfway through their six regular season spring tournaments before they head to the WAC Championship at the end of April. Next up for Tarleton State is The Big Texan in Kerrville, Texas, at Riverhill Country Club March 25-26.