The Bowling Green men’s golf team traveled to Pottsboro, Texas, over the weekend for the Pepsi Cola Invitational, where they placed 10th out of 13 teams in the three-round tournament with a score of 927.

The tournament was played at the par 72, 6993-yard course at the Tanglewood Resort in harsh conditions. The temperature was well below normal and the winds were a problem for the golfers.

Freshman Austin Chase commented on the conditions in Texas: “We played pretty good for this early in the year and under the conditions we had. It was really windy and cold.” Nevertheless, BG’s scores for each of the three rounds were 310, 306 and 311.

The Michigan State team won the tournament with a score of 873. Minnesota, Illinois, Rollins College and Penn State were the next four teams. BG finished two strokes behind Florida Gulf Coast and six strokes ahead of Princeton. BG also finished ahead of Northern Illinois, the only other Mid-American Conference team in the meet.

At last weekend’s Big Red Classic the Falcons finished in third place, only 10 strokes behind Michigan State and five strokes ahead of Penn State.

Leading the Falcons was senior Justin Gillham, who tied for 23rd place with a score of 228. Gillham shot 75, 79 and 74 in the three rounds of play. Also placing for the Falcons were Chase, who tied for 27th place with a score of 231; junior Adam Balls, who tied for 42nd place with a 235; senior Brian Gerken, who shot a 238 en route to a 52nd-place finish; and freshman Craig Pickerel with a 246 to tie for 68th place.

BG golfers are optimistic about the rest of the season after their performance at the first meet.

“We’ve got a lot of potential on the team and it is just a matter of fine tuning everything and coming together,” Chase said. “Last week was a good indication of our potential.”

The next meet for the Falcons will be the Marshall University Invitational in Huntington, W. Va., on April 5 through April 6. The BG golfers will compete with Marshall and other MAC schools at the meet