McKeever's Clubs Stolen; Auburn Men's Golf Fires 11-Under 273 to Finish Third in Jerry Pate Intercollegiate

Oct. 12, 2004

AUBURN ----Senior Tyler McKeever had his clubs stolen Tuesday, but he still fired a 2-under 69 to finish third individuallys to lead the ninth-ranked Auburn men's golf team to third place at 22-under 830, ahead of top-ranked Oklahoma State and No. 2 Georgia after the final round of the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate at the par-71, 6958-yard Old Overton Golf Club in Birmingham.

McKeever, who had his clubs stolen at the team's hotel during breakfast Tuesday morning, was searching for a new set to play with at Old Overton. All of the replacements were either too long or too short for his frame. With less than 30 minutes before his tee time, junior teammate Andrew Medley, who is being redshirted this season, arrived unannouced after making the two-hour drive from Auburn to surprise the team to watch them in the final round.

Fortunately, Medley had his clubs in the trunk of his car, and although they aren't exactly like McKeever's, they are very similar. McKeever used Medley's clubs to fire his 69 after rounds of 71 and 66 Monday to finish tied for third at 7-under 206, three shots behind medalist Kalle Edberg (66-203) of Augusta State . TCU's David Schultz (69-205) finished a shot ahead of McKeever for second.

The Tigers, meanwhile, put together scores of 67, 68, a pair of 69s and threw out a 71 to climb from sixth to third. Senior Will Claxton (69-208) and junior Stuart Moore (68-208) tied for 10th while senior All-American Lee Williams fired a team-low third round 67 to tie for 16th at 209. Freshman Patton Kizzire tied for 41st at 71-216.

"I'm really proud of them to shoot 11-under in the final round," head coach Mike Griffin said. "We were fortunate to beat the No. 1 ranked team in Oklahoma State and No. 2 Georgia and were only one shot behind No. 2 Georgia Tech. This pretty much proves that we can be a competitive team this year. We will just have to continue to go from here."

Augusta State clipped the Tigers for the day's low score with a 12-under 272 to win the tournament with an 825 total, four shots ahead of second-ranked Georgia Tech (277-829) and five better than Auburn (273-830). No. 2 Georgia finished fourth at 277-833 followed by No. 1 Oklahoma State (283-835), host Alabama (285-839), No. 10 TCU (277-840), No. 21 Wake Forest (273-840), No. 12 Southern California (286-847), No. 11 Clemson (276-855), UAB (286-860) and Vanderbilt (281-862). Auburn returns to action at the Country Club of Louisiana Intercollegiate Oct. 25-26 in Baton Rouge , La.