Sooners Finish Third at Scenic City

Sept. 11, 2007

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The University of Oklahoma men's golf team opened the 2007-08 season with a third-place showing at the Scenic City Invitational in Chattanooga, Tenn., Tuesday. OU bested 14 squads, including three ranked in the latest Golfstat.com top-50 poll, at the 6,961-yard, par-71 Council Fire Golf Club.

Starting the final round in a tie for third, Eric Durbin fired a 1-under-par 70 on Tuesday to finish second. The result was OU's best individual finish since Brodie Flanders finished second at the 2006 Big 12 Championship. Durbin's 7-under-par 64 in the opening round was the lowest round by an OU golfer since John Kidwell shot 64 in the 2001 Big 12 Championship.

"I can't overstate how impressive Eric's 64 was yesterday morning," said head coach Jim Ragan. "Starting the season in the manner he did shows how hard he worked on his game over the summer."

The Houston, Texas, native jumped up the leaderboard into a tie for first at the midway point of his final round after an opening-nine, 3-under-par 33 that included birdies at three of his first four holes. A birdie at the par-3 14th moved the sophomore to 4-under on his final round but a bogey at the 16th and a double-bogey six at the closing hole dropped Durbin back to -7 for the tournament.

Phillip Bryan, the lone upperclassman on the Oklahoma roster, finished a stroke behind Durbin at -6. The Mustang, Okla., product strung together birdies at the second, third and fourth holes to move into a first-place tie early in the final round. A bogey at the par-4 eighth was offset by a birdie at the 13th, but the senior closed his round with a double-bogey at the 17th and a bogey at the 18th to drop into a tie for sixth.

"Phillip and Eric got us off to the start we were missing last year in tournaments," added Ragan. "I'm thrilled on how they played this early in the season. Standing on the 17th tee today, both put themselves in a position to possibly win the tournament. They both had a little trouble coming in but that comes with experience. Sometimes you have to finish second before you can finish first."

Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Jesse Schutte jumped from 43rd to 26th after shooting 70 on Tuesday. The Florence, Ore., native carded rounds of 73, 73 and 70.

Rounding out the OU scoring were sophomores Ben Blundell and Tyler Rody, who finished 46th and 57th, respectively. Blundell shot 75 in the final round while Rody carded a 73, his low round of the season opener.

Twenty-second ranked Charlotte took home the team title after a three-round, 30-under-par effort. Tournament host UT-Chattanooga finished seven shots back. Starting the round in a tie for third, Charlotte's Corey Nagy won medalist honors after a final-round 67. Nagy finished three shots better than Durbin and a trio of other golfers.

"The two teams in front of us put together two excellent rounds on Monday and separated themselves so far from the field that they most likely were not going to be caught," said Ragan. "But with quite a few teams grouped right around us, I challenged our team to hold onto that third-place standing and they responded. I was extremely pleased with how we finished the event."

OU returns to the links Sept. 24 at the Shoal Creek Invitational in Birmingham, Ala.

Link to final standings: http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=1066

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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