October 12, 2010
Amarillo, Texas – Getting better as the tournament progressed, Matt Vela’s furious final-round surge helped the St. Mary’s University men’s golf team take third place at the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite on Tuesday.
Vela, a senior from MacArthur High School in San Antonio, took fourth place individually after carding a 68 in Tuesday’s third and final round.
Vela got better every round, following up a first-round 73 with a second-round 70, before finishing with a 68 in the third round for a tournament-total of 211.
Vela ended up three strokes out of first place.
Jeff Rein (Sr., San Antonio), the reigning Heartland Conference Men’s Golfer of the Week, tied for 13th after posting a three-round score of 217.
As a team, the Rattlers mirrored Vela’s round-by-round progression, improving scoring 300, 289 and then 287 in Tuesday’s final round. Their total, 876, was 21 strokes off the lead.