LAKELAND, FLA.- The Palm Beach Atlantic men's golf team began their spring season earlier this week at the Matlock Collegiate Classic. The Sailfish finished seventh of 15 teams in the tournament and tied with the Barry Bucaneer's both shooting an 895 in the three rounds of play.

The host Florida Southern College took the tournament's first place title shooting an 870 in the two days and as a team were +6 to par. The Sharks of Nova Southeastern University trailed only five strokes behind the Moc's at 875 and took second. Lynn University were just two strokes away from tying for second with Nova shooting an 877 as a team in the two days and were +13 to par. Your final two teams to round out the top five were Barton College and another SSC foe Saint Leo University. Barton finished with a score of 884 and the Lion's finished with 887 as a team. 

The Sailfish finished four strokes away from taking that sixth spot but the University of Tampa claimed that throne. PBA sent out five players for the tournament and had some great individual finishers. The top performer for the 'Fish, Justus Verge, finished in tied in seventh place which was his second best finish of the season since tying for fifth at the Flagler Jay Jennison Cup in Septmeber. Verge shot an outstanding 217 in the three rounds and shot his tournament best 71 in round three. That is the third time Verge has shot a 71 since the beginning of fall season. 

PBA had two more notable performers that finished within the top 50. The two Florida natives, Raines Holmes and Trey Tesiero tied for both 30th and 34th place individually. The two were only one stroke apart from each other with Holmes shooting a 226 for the tournament and Tesiero shooting a 227. Holmes shot a 218 in every single tournament he participated in during the Fall and finally broke that streak. Tesiero did some serious damage in the fall season and had an outstanding first place finish at the Flagler Jay Jennison Cup and is expected to tear it up again this spring. 

The two other finishers for the Sailfish were Cade Coffey and Ty Cooper. Coffey finished tied at 60th and Cooper tied at 63rd. Coffey was a big contributor in the fall season and had his best finish at the NSU Invite at ninth place. The NSU invite was also the first appearance of the fall season for Cooper and we are hoping to see more from him in the spring.

Men's golf will compete again next week on Feb. 13-14 in St. Augustine, Fla. where they will play in the Lincoln Memorial tournament that will be held at St. Johns Golf Club.