Despite an outstanding performance from Matt Schneider, the BG men’s golf team finished in a disappointing 10th place at this past weekend’s UK Bluegrass Invitational. The 10th place was equally disappointing because for the first time this spring, the team got off to a great start. The Falcons collectively fired a 300 in round one – good for fifth place out of 17 teams and trailing tournament-leader Miami at the time by four strokes. ‘We played very well in the first round,’ said BG coach Garry Winger. ‘We had ourselves in an absolutely fantastic position.’ The Falcons fizzled in rounds two and three with scores of 307 and 316 respectively. This performance bucked the trend for BG where they would collectively get better as the tournament went on. Winger lamented at the fact the Falcons were right there until it went array on the back nine of the final round. ‘The last six holes we played terrible,’ he said. ‘Probably gave away 15 shots right there.’ The University of Kentucky dominated the competition by posting a collective score of 16 over par 880 for the three round tournament. The next closest team was Western Carolina with a score of 890. As mentioned, junior captain Matt Schneider did everything he could to keep the Falcons in contention by firing scores of 71 and 72 in the first two rounds but fell off in the third round with a 76. Schneider’s one under par performance through two rounds gave him the overall lead, but his final round score knocked him down to a very respectable third place finish for the tournament, carding a three over par 219. Unfortunately for the Falcons, the next highest finish was freshmen Parker Hewit – who finished in a tie for 37th place with a score of 14 over par 230. ‘Matt had a great tournament, but he had no help,’ Winger said. Junior John Powers finished in 51st place by himself with a score of 19 over par 235. The Falcon scoring was rounded out by Drew Preston and Scott Blackburn who carded a 240 and 242 respectively. Erik Barnes won the individual performance with a score of one under par 215 which included a final round 67 – something that caught Winger’s eye. ‘That final round 67 in those conditions by Erik Barnes was incredible,’ Winger said. The Falcons will next be in action this weekend to compete in the Boilermaker Invitational.