Richard Gwin/Journal-World PhotoMissouri won the Kansas Invitational golf tournament a year ago.
“We said, ‘It’s not going to happen this year, that’s for sure,”’ KU sophomore Chris Marshall said.
The revenge-minded Jayhawks blasted Mizzou and 11 other schools at the 2000 Kansas Invitational Monday and Tuesday at Alvamar’s pubic course.
Led by Marshall, who tied for second at 1-under-par 215, the Jayhawks finished at 3-under par 861 31 strokes better than Missouri. Kansas State notched third with 899 strokes.
“We didn’t play phenomenal, but we played well,” said Marshall, an Overland Park native who attended Blue Valley High School. “We were consistent.”
Quite consistent.
KU’s Andy Stewart tied for fourth at 1-over-par 217. Conrad Roberts placed sixth at 218 and Casey Harbour seventh at 219. Travis Hurst completed the starting fivesome, finishing in a tie for ninth at 221.
“Our top five is our top five,” Marshall said. “One through five the numeric part of it doesn’t matter.”
On a given day, any of the five could lead the Jayhawk lineup.
“We do not have a dominating player like Ryan Vermeer (who has graduated), but I think we’ll have a lot of good contributions by everybody,” KU coach Ross Randall said. “I think we’re better off having more depth. Down the line, that will help us.”
KU had so much depth, its unattached golfers as a team would have placed second overall.
Jim Gates and Tyler Hall tied for ninth. Jason deBuhr and Nic Rebne placed 14th and 16th respectively. Jason Byler was 53rd.
“I think we’ll see a lot of different players on this team play well in different events,” Randall said.
Gibby Martens of Texas-San Antonio was medalist at 69-73-68210. Marshall (72-72-71) tied for runnerup with Missouri’s Michael Radek.
“Awesome. You’ve got to give him props. He came here to win and he won,” Marshall said of Martens.
But KU took the team prize. “It’s big time,” Randall said of winning by 31. “If we play to our potential we should do that because this is our course.”
