Nov. 4, 2008

SAPPHIRE, N.C. - The Samford men's golf team fired a second-round score of 292 on Tuesday to improve two spots at the 2008 Hummingbird Intercollegiate. The Bulldogs finished the prestigious tournament as the ninth-place team in the annual competition held at the Country Club of Sapphire Valley.

Samford improved its team score by 10 strokes Tuesday as it jumped from 11th place to ninth place on the final day of competition. The Bulldogs' significant improvement was due to a pair of stellar performances from seniors Andrew Villarreal and Ian Cutting.

Villarreal, Samford's native of Decatur, Ala., fired a team-best round of 67 on Tuesday and finished with a 36-hole score of 146. Cutting also rallied for a below-par performance in the second round and notched a 70 to finish the tournament at 148. Villarreal led the Bulldogs with a 25th-place finish in the individual standings.

Samford's Martin Bunt also improved Tuesday and carded a second-round score of 73. The Bulldogs' sophomore from Pensacola, Fla., finished third on the team with a 36-hole total of 149.

Rounding out Samford's top-five players this week were Bobby Baird (70-82--152) and Tyler Baird (78-86--164).

UCF held off a resurgent Vanderbilt team to earn a one-stroke victory in the team competition. UCF turned in a second-round score of 276 for a two-day total of 557, while Vanderbilt shot 275 for a final team score of 558. Rounding out the top five were Akron (578), Elon (584) and Western Carolina (587).

Vanderbilt's Hudson Johnson won the individual title with a two-day total of 133. He fired a tournament-best score of 65 on Tuesday to rally for a one-stroke victory over UCF's David Johnson.

The 2008 Hummingbird Intercollegiate was Samford's final competition of the fall season. The Bulldogs will next be in action March 2-3 in the West Florida Intercollegiate Tournament held in Pensacola, Fla.