Seventy-two shots separated the Eastern men’s golf team, who finished in last place at the Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate Tournament, from Arkansas State who placed first with a team score of –26 par.

The Panthers shot +24 par in 18 holes on Tuesday, with sophomore Romeo Perez once again shooting the low score for the Panthers at +2 par.

Perez had three birdies on Tuesday, two on the front nine, but added four bogeys to those.

Perez finished the tournament at +2 par overall and in a five-way tie for 13th place.

Perez said the toughest part of playing today was the conditions, the wind was blowing in at 28 mph he said.

“I played as good as yesterday, but the conditions were way harder,” Perez said. “It was really windy out there, so I am happy with my score.”

To battle the wind Perez said he hit a lot of knock down shots and tried to put the ball in safe areas to in an effort to make easy pars.

Sophomore Marco Verdolin shot +5 par on Tuesday to finish at +12 par on the tournament. That put him in a tie for 46th place.

Verdolin had four birdies on Tuesday, but a triple-bogey on the 16th hole all but negated those.

Junior Charlie Adare shot +22 in the tournament to finish in a for 66th place. He shot +6 on Tuesday, he made one birdie on hole number six, but had seven bogeys on top of that.

Eastern senior Alex Gowin followed closely behind him in 69th place, he shot +11 on Tuesday with one birdie, one double-bogey and 10 bogeys.

Rounding the Eastern team was freshman Sebastian Olrog who finished in 73^rd place at +33 par in the tournament.

Olrog shot +17 on Tuesday with a triple-bogey and two double-bogeys on his scorecard.

Perez felt the lack of practice Eastern had in the winter hampered the team.

“The field was the strongest field we play all year with conference,” Perez said. “We just need to avoid big numbers and we’ll do better.”

Arkansas State’s Matthew Cole won the tournament individually shooting –10 par in the tournament. He shot –3 par on Tuesday with four birdies and one bogey.

Cole finished with a two-stroke lead over Hunter Richardson of Tennessee-Martin who shot –4 par on Tuesday with seven birdies, one double-bogey and one bogey.

Arkansas State won the tournament by 29 strokes, shooting –26 par, ironically placing first over Arkansas State’s B-team which finished in second at +3 par.

Arkansas State’s B-team finished four strokes ahead of Oral Roberts who placed third.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or jpbullock@eiu.edu