Tarleton State Men’s Golf continues spring season at Golden Nugget Invitational

Dates: March 2-3
Location: Lake Charles, La. | Country Club at Golden Nugget
Par/Yardage: Par 72 | 6,909 yards
Participating Teams: Tarleton State, Louisiana Tech, Wichita State, Troy, Wichita State, Lamar, South Carolina Upstate, Northern Colorado and WAC rival Abilene Christian
Tarleton State Players Competing: Alvaro Pastor, Maximilian Bjornstrom, Juan Ballester, Luis Buech, Kellen Young, Drew Ironisde, Nicholas Papacharalambous

LAKE CHARLES, La. - Tarleton State Men's Golf is riding momentum of one of their top performances of the season and heads to the Golden Nugget Invitational at the Country Club at Golden Nugget starting Monday.

Tarleton State is coming off a runner-up finish in its last tournament, tying for second place with a 54-hole score of 852 at even par as a team at the Border Olympics. The Texans finished just two strokes behind University of Houston, who is currently nationally-ranked at No. 54. The 852 total marked the second-lowest 54-hole team score since Tarleton State transitioned to Division I competition.

The Texans had two golfers finish inside the top ten individually. Sophomore Luis Buech led the team with a tie for fourth at 3-under-par, earning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors for his performance.

Separately, redshirt freshman Alvaro Pastor secured a tie for eighth finish at 1-under-par. His strong showing further fueled Tarleton State's rise up the leaderboard and emphasized the overall depth of the lineup.

Junior Juan Ballester and sophomore Kellen Young are also set to compete in this week's tournament, with Ballester finishing tied for 18th at the Border Olympics. Sophomore Drew Ironside also returns to the lineup for this tournament, competing for the Texans in 11 rounds this season. Ironside finished in the top 10 at last year's WAC Championship, becoming the first freshman in the program's Division I era to collect a top 10 finish at a conference championship. Freshmen Maximilian Bjornstrom and Nicholas Papacharalambous will also compete in the Golden Nugget Invitational as individuals.

Other teams set to compete include Louisiana Tech, Wichita State, Troy, Wichita State, Lamar, South Carolina Upstate, Northern Colorado and WAC rival Abilene Christian. This will be the Texans' second meeting with ACU, with the first being at Tarleton State's first-ever Division I era championship event at the FAU Invitational.

Tee off will begin at 8:45 a.m. on Monday. Live scoring will be available with Scoreboard by Clipd.

Print Friendly Version