The Men’s golf team finished second at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Golf tournament down in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday. The longhorns carded 19-under-par across the three days, just 2 strokes behind No.9 Illinois, the champions in Vegas.

With the help of a colossal collapse by No 3. North Carolina, No. 9 Illinois was able to claim victory after shooting 11-under on the final day of the tournament. The Fighting Illini shot 11-under-par on day 3 and 21-under-par overall in the tournament. The Tar Heels shot 4-over-par on day 3 after going 17-under on day one and resulted in North Carolina finishing  4th overall at the Southern Highlands Collegiate.

Including the Horns, Golfweek’s DI coaches poll nine ranked schools and six unranked teams played in Vegas. Those teams include No. 3 North Carolina, No. 7 Florida, No. 9 Illinois, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 11 Georgia Tech, No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 16 Pepperdine and No. 21 San Diego State. Unranked Georgia, New Mexico, SMU, TCU, UCF and host UNLV rounded out the field. 

The Fighting Illini’s efforts were led by fifth-year senior Tommy Kulh, who shot 4-under on day three and 9-under overall on the tournament. The impressive individual 9-under score was 3rd overall on the entire field of players and just 4 strokes back from Florida senior Yuxin Lun. The 1st place individual finish by Lin is also the 1st time he has done so in a collegiate golf tournament.

Graduate senior Brian Stark, freshman Christiaan Maas, freshman Keaton Vo, freshman Jacob Sosa, and senior Travis Vick all competed for the team, while freshman Tommy Morrison played three individual rounds to make his own effort at the player leaderboard. 

Maas carded a team best 10-under-par after three days and second place on the overall field. Sosa and Vo finished 3-under-par each and finished tied for 19th. Stark finished 2-under, which placed him tied for 22nd, and Vick carded a team worst 4-over-par across three days, placing him tied for 50th in the overall field. Tommy Morrison shot 7-under-par across three days, even though it did not count towards the Longhorns overall score in the tournament. 

On the opening day of the Southern Highlands Collegiate, the horns shot a team score of 5-under-par, with Maas shooting a team best 6-under-par, the best score he has carded so far in his collegiate career. By the end of the day, the 5-under-par score of 283 tied the Longhorns for third place and 12 strokes behind first place No. 3 North Carolina.

Texas proved to be contenders on day two of the tournament, posting an 11-under-par 277 as Stark shot a team best 4-under-par and Maas followed behind going 3-under. The score brought the Longhorns to 16-under-par on the tournament and second place in the field. 

The final day of the tournament was an exciting one, with Texas, North Carolina, and Illinois all holding leads across the day. The Longhorns eventually scored a 3-under-par 285, which placed them in second place with an overall score of 19-under-par, just two strokes behind the No.9 Fighting Illini, the champions of the Southern Highland Collegiate.

Texas men’s golf will next head to the Valspar Collegiate Invitational in Palm City, Florida from March 26-28.