US COLLEGE NEWS

KIRTON FADES BUT LOUISVILLE
MAKE IT THREE TEAM
VICTORIES IN A ROW

Lewis Kirton, pictured right, faded out of contention for the individual title but the big consolation for the Newmachar Golf Club member from Oldmeldrum was that his college, the University of Louisville Kentucky, won the team title for the third straight tournament since the summer holidays.
Kirton’s third and final round of 79 was in marked contrast to his so-steady opening scores of 71 and 70 over the par-72, 7,249yd Colonial Country Club course at Cordova in Tennessee.
A total of four-over-par 220 knocked him out of one of the top positions and he finished joint 17th in a field of 93 players – not a bad performance at all by a freshman playing in only his third tournament on the American college circuit.
But Kirton, who played for Great Britain & Ireland in the Jacques Leglise Trophy match against the Continent of Europe a few weeks ago, will be feeling just that little bit down on a personal level.
The Louisville coach, in contrast, will be delighted with his team. All five players finished in the top 20. The team score of 857 gave them an 11-stroke victory from Texas Christian University with Wisconsin way back in third place on 876 in a strong field of 18 colleges.
Frank Cortening (Texas Christian) claimed the individual honours with scores of 72, 70 and 70 for four-under-par 212.
He won by one shot from Tyler Hitchcock (Southern Florida) who had scores of 65, 74 and 74 for 213.
Southeastern Louisiana sophomore student Aaron O’Callaghan from Cork and team-mate Graham Benson from Leighton Buzzard were joint third on 215. O’Callaghan shot 69, 74 and 72; Benson 77, 71 and 67.
Kirton’s final placings in his three tournaments have been 15th, 26th and 17th equal.
TOP INDIVIDUALS
212 Frank Cortening (TCU) 72 70 70.
213 Tyler Hitchcock (SE Louisiana) 65 74 74.
215 Aaron O’Callaghan (SE Louisiana) 77 71 67, Graham Benson (SE Louisiana) 77 71 67.
Other total:
220 Lewis Kirton (Louisville Kentucky) 71 70 79.
TOP TEAM TOTALS
857 Louisville.
868 Texas Christian.
876 Wisconsin.