It was an old-fashioned shootout down in Texas for the Binghamton University golf team this past week, as 35-mph winds whipped across the desert, and more than just tumbleweed bounced around the greens. The Bearcats shot a final round of 313 to place fifth of the 11 teams at the America Sky Conference championship at Los Logos Golf Club in Edinburg.

Binghamton got off to a slow start, shooting a 318 in the first round. The team gained momentum with a 311 score in the second round followed by a 313 final round score.

The Bearcats’ fifth-place finish was an improvement on their sixth-place finish at last year’s conference tournament, which only had seven competing teams. The Bearcats had hoped for better, but head coach Bernie Herceg was proud of his athletes.

“Overall we did OK; I thought we’d finish top 3, if not win,” Herceg said. “But there’s a different type of golf down in Texas, we haven’t played that type of golf ever.”

Generally up north the courses are more forgiving, with more moisture in the grass and in the ground. Down in Texas, the dry ground results in very firm, hard greens, where the ball moves very fast and is hard to control.

“You don’t get rewarded for good shots as much as courses we’re used to, but we’ve learned that and we have some experience now,” Herceg said.

Bearcat senior Jake Katz continued to be the team’s top performer and the epitome of consistency, shooting a low score of 74 in the second round with his other scores of 76 and 79 in the first and third rounds, respectively.

Patrick Donovan, the Bearcats’ grad student captain, finished just behind Katz, shooting 77, 78 and 80 in his three rounds.

“We’ll miss him a lot next year, he’s a good captain and a great leader, he had a great career with BU and he’s played very well,” Herceg said of Donovan.

This season has shone a spotlight on freshman David Cellura, who time after time has proven that although he is young, he can play at an elite level. Despite a weaker first round score of 85, Cellura found his groove and finished his last two rounds of the tournament with two impressive 75s, a good sign for things to come in BU’s golfing future.

The final tournament for Binghamton will be Virginia’s Cavalier Classic, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.