The Barton Community College men's golf team won their third straight tournament, rallying from a first round deficit to win by four strokes Tuesday at the Blue Devil Invitational held at Kansas City's Dub's Dread Golf Club.
The Cougars opened with a 306 during Monday's rain drenched round, trailing Dodge City Community College by four strokes. As weather cleared for Tuesday's final round, the Cougars shaved off twelve strokes to fire a 294 to take the team title over the Conquistadors by four shots on the 24-over 600 combined two-round total.
Tom Gehring became the third different Cougar to claim individual title and the fourth in as many meets of the fall season, edging out teammate Carlos Hamou by one stroke in the 39-player field. Gehring, who led after first round action of the Cougars' last time out at the Barton Invitational, followed his opening round of 73 with a 74 in moving from a tie for second into the top spot with a 3-over 147 total. Hamou carded a 76 on Monday but charged up the leaderboard with a day two low round of par 72 for the 148 total, winning a tiebreaker for the second overall position over KCK's Colby Unruh.
A pair of Cougars ended up in a three-way tie for sixth giving Barton four in the top ten of the leaderboard, Tom Lehmann competing on the program's "A" grouping while Ethan Bonnett led the "B" grouping as each shot identical 78-74 rounds for an 8-over 152.
Two-time event winner Pontus Nordstrom and Great Bend's Brantley Baldwin rounded out the "A" group with 13-over 157 scores. Nordstrom posted 83-74 rounds while Baldwin recorded consistent 79-78 rounds.
Placing behind Bonnett on the "B" group, season opening tournament victor Peeranat Suporn also posted a 13th place 157 score behind 77-80 rounds. Marshall Woolf stayed consistent with 86-84 rounds for a 170 while Toby Woolf carded 114-111 rounds for a 225 total.
Barton concludes their fall portion of the schedule with its toughest test of the year coming November 3-4 in Odessa, Texas, as the Cougars compete in the NJCAA National Championship preview tournament.
Barton Results:
1st Tom Gehring +3 147 (73-74)
2nd Carlos Hamou +4 148 (76-72)
T-6th Tom Lehmann (78-74) and Ethan Bonnett (78-74) +8 152
T-13th Pontus Nordstrom (83-74), Brantley Baldwin (79-78), and Peeranat Suporn (77-80) +13 157
T-28th Marshall Woolf +26 170 (86-84)
38th Toby Woolf +81 225 (114-111)