April 21, 2008

Athens, OH (UWIRE) -- The Ohio golf team was in an unfamiliar position after Saturday's second round at the Rutherford Intercollegiate, and yesterday, it showed.

After two solid rounds to open the tournament in State College, Pa., the Bobcats were in fifth place at 590 (+27) overall, 23 shots behind the lead of host Penn State.

True on all levels of the game, Sunday is a different animal. The rain picked up, and the course played so long that some par-4 holes weren't reachable in two shots. Ohio shot a final-round 325 to fall to ninth place overall.

"We had a bad day," coach Bob Cooley said. "Once it started raining, we just didn't play very well."

Favorable weather conditions met the field for the majority of the first round on Saturday, but as the afternoon progressed, Mother Nature didn't comply. Cooley, who has been critical of his team's short game of late, offered a blunt assessment of the Bobcats' performance.

"We obviously don't play well in bad weather."

Nine of the Bobcats' ten rounds on Saturday were below 80. Yesterday, all scores posted by Ohio were 80 or higher. Chad Warmbein led Ohio with a final-round 81 to finish at 229 total, two shots better than Gusweiler, who finished with a 231.

Junior James Ellis was third among Ohio golfers at 234.

"The first part of Saturday was nice. It was kind of windy, but after that it was brutal," Ellis said. "Obviously, everyone played in it, but we just didn't play as well as we would like."

Host Penn State was the overall champion.

(C) 2008 The Post via UWIRE