Troy men’s golf earns sixth place finish in Houston

Troy men’s golf team claimed sixth place at the All-American Intercollegiate Tournament at the Houston Golf Club in Humble, Texas.

From Feb. 19-21, Troy faced a field of teams that included Houston, South Carolina, Baylor, Louisiana Tech and the champion Arkansas. The Trojans finished with a team score of a 26-over 881.

Junior Clayton Vannoy of Pensacola, Florida, led the pack with a 5-under 211 finish. He tied for third in the individual standings.

Vannoy ended the tournament shooting two straight rounds of 70. Three birdies and a lone bogey tied his career best.

The Trojans saved their best round for Sunday, the last day of the tournament. Troy advanced on the leaderboard throughout the weekend and passed Charleston Southern to claim sixth place.

Junior Luke Moser of Waterloo, Ontario, shot two under par, and fellow junior Jared Bettcher, an Auburn, Alabama, native, shot a 72 in Sunday’s round. Redshirt junior Cam Norman of Greenville, Alabama, and Freshman Calum Masters of Headland both shot 78s.

Golfstat ranks the Trojans as the 80th-best golf team in the nation. The Trojans finished higher than three teams ahead of them on the list, and the five teams that finished ahead of the Trojans were ranked between 27th and 38th going into the tournament.

Moser tied for 12th place after climbing eight leaderboard spots, thanks to his sixth under-par round of the season. In this round, Moser shot three birdies after a bogey on his first hole of the day.

Teammate Bettcher also climbed through the leaderboard, hitting a team-best four birdies and jumping nine spots to tie for 26th. Norman ended the tournament tied for 70th and Masters ended tied for 74th.

The Trojans will return to action at the Tiger Invitational hosted by Auburn on March 6-8.