Freshman Roman Robledo led the Cougars to a second-place finish at the Rice Invitational on Tuesday. Robledo and sophomore Jesse Droemer finished third and fourth, respectively on the individual leaderboard. | Courtesy of UH Athletics
The Cougars rebounded from a ninth-place finish at their first tournament of the spring to take second in the field of 15 at the Rice Intercollegiate hosted by Westwood Golf Club.
“Last week we were just really rusty and sloppy,” Head Coach Jonathan Dismuke said. “We wanted to do a better job this week to make sure our attitude was proper and we were ready to compete for 54 holes instead of just when things went our way.”
Thirty-six holes in, the Cougars sat in third place, six shots behind Florida Gulf Coast and seven behind eventual winner Northwestern before turning in a team score of 284 in the third round, knocking off seven strokes from their first and second round scores of 291.
“We knew that we could contend if we played up to our potential,” freshman Roman Robledo said. “We tried a little too hard in the first round but came out in the second round and just played our game; we didn’t push as much.”
The Cougars were led by Robledo, whose four-under was third-best amongst the 81 competing golfers and was the second tournament in a row the golfer sat atop the UH leader board, earning him tremendous praise from his peers.
“We’re just seeing the beginning stages of how good of a player he’s really going to be,” Dismuke said. “He’s developing each and every day; he’s smarter, getting more tournament -tested and I really believe the sky is the limit.”
Also leading UH was sophomore Jesse Droemer, who finished tied for fourth individually at three-under in his first tournament of the spring.
The Cougars hope to ride their wave of momentum with this week’s short turn around, as they will compete Saturday and Sunday in Palm Desert, Calif. at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate.
“Any time you can have some success to build on it’s always good,” Dismuke said. “We’ll head out there with a good taste in our mouth from having a strong performance at Rice.”
