Merritt Captures Second Career Title

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Boise State University men’s golfer Troy Merritt captured the individual title at the 2007 Giustina Memorial Classic, Tuesday, as he shot a 69 (-3) in the final round to earn his place atop the leader board.

For the tournament, Merritt registered a 204 (-12) en route to the win, but the victory did not come easy. At the conclusion of the first round, Merritt was tied for third place with three individuals with a 4-under 68. He then fired a tournament 67 (-5) to ascend the leader board into a tie for first place at 9-under. Merritt’s third round score of 69 (-3) matched the best score from Tuesday’s competition as he was one of only five golfer to record a score below 70 and propelled him to the victory.

“It is always nice when you can play this way against this level of competition,” Merritt said. “I played solid throughout the tournament. I didn’t make mistakes and only had two bogeys. I putted my butt off in the first round then played solid the next two for the victory.”

This is the second tournament win of Merritt’s career. Last season he captured the individual title at the Ron Moore Invitational in Goodyear, Ariz., with a 13-under 203. Merritt has now posted scores of par or better in three straight rounds, four of the last five and in six of the last eight dating back to last season.

In his first season with the team, Merritt rewrote the record Boise State record books. He posted the three-round low score of 201 (-12), tied the record for a low round with a 62 (-9) and set the single round conference championships score with a 66 (-6) in the second round.

This was also a big win for Merritt because he was able to showcase his talent in a tournament featuring numerous Pacific-10 Conference teams and many others in the western region including Western Athletic Conference rivals Fresno State and Idaho.

John Baranco finished second on the Boise State squad with a 221 (+5) to tie for 29th place overall. Matt Hastings recorded a 223 (+7) to tie for 33rd place, while Chase Cochran finished 46th with a 229 (+13) and Tyler McDougall finished 49th with a 240 (+24).

As a team the Broncos finished in eighth place with a 876 (+12), 10 strokes ahead of Idaho.

Results

Giustina Memorial Classic

Trysting Tree Country Club

Corvallis, Ore.

Sept. 17-18

Boise State Individuals: 1. Troy Merritt (68-67-69-204, -12), T29. John Baranco (75-71-75-221, +5), T33. Matt Hastings (72-71-80-223, +7), 46. Chase Cochran (75-72-82-229, +13), 49. Tyler McDougall (79-80-81-240, +24).

Top Teams: 1. Oregon State (283-274-286-843, -21), 2. Fresno State (286-280-285-851, -13), T3. Portland (281-285-287-853, -11), T3. Oregon (277-285-291-853, -11), T3. UC Irvine (290-277-286-853, -11), 6. Washington State (287-283-290-860, -4), 7. UC Riverside (292-291-290-873, +9), 8. Boise State (290-281-305-876, +12), 9. Idaho (296-299-291-886, +22), 10. Idaho State (295-307-313-915, +51).

Top Individuals: 1. Troy Merritt, Boise State, (68-67-69-204, -12), 2. Vincent Johnson, Oregon State, (68-67-70-205, -11), 3. James Allenby, Oregon State, (68-69-69-206, -10), 4. John Chin, UC Irvine, (71-68-69-208, -8), T5. Matthew Ryan, Fresno State, (71-69-70-210, -6), T5. Joel Johnson, Portland, (67-72-71-210, -6).

--www.broncosports.com--

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