Goodyear, Arizona--The South Mountain Community College Cougar men’s golf team continued conference play March 3rd-4th at the Golf Club of Estrella in the Paradise Valley Invitational. The Cougars played good golf in severely windy conditions Monday afternoon, however, only two of their 6 players were able to finish before dark fell over the course. This forced 4 of SMCC’s players to finish the opening round early in the morning before they competed in the final round Tuesday afternoon.

After Round 1 completed Tuesday morning, Chandler-Gilbert had a commanding lead at 298, followed by Scottsdale and Mesa at 306, and South Mountain at 307. Although the lead was big, South Mountain knew they had the potential and talent to overcome the gap even though they were trailing three strong colleges including Scottsdale Community College, last years NJCAA Division I National Champions.

As the sun set on the golf course at the end of the final round, the Cougars had done the unthinkable and stormed from 9-shots back with a tournament low round of 287 (-1) to finish at 594 and win in commanding fashion, five shots clear of second place Scottsdale at 599, Chandler-Gilbert at 602, and Mesa at 603.

When asked what he said to the team between rounds to get them focused on the long day ahead Coach Harrington said “I told the guys that we were the most talented team on the golf course and we just needed four of them to step up and play to their potential and we would put ourselves in a position to win.” However, instead of four playing good they all did. Nick Bisogno and Cody Paterson’s fired  rounds of 71, followed by Chace Nathe at 72, Tommy McGrane and Nic Banfield at 73, and Scott Brace at 76.

The Cougars will now get ready for the South Mountain Invitational to take place March 12-13, 2008 at the Palm Valley Golf Club.