Valparaiso University men's golf junior Rob Politza (Lemont, Ill. / Lemont Township) finished out a top-3 finish in an 87-player field as the Beacons concluded play at Rice's Bayou City Collegiate Classic at the par-72, 7184-yard Westwood Golf Club in Houston on Tuesday. Due to a long weather delay on Monday, the teams finished out the second round on Tuesday before playing the third and final round.
 
How It Happened

• Politza finished Round 2 with a 68 (-4), matching his strong showing from Round 1. He turned in a clean Round-2 scorecard with four birdies and no boxed-in numbers.
• Politza played the third round at even par, finishing the tournament with a 54-hole total of 208 (-8). He was one stroke away from cracking the program's all-time top-10 for 54-hole tournament in relation to par, as his round is tied for 12^th. Only three players in program history have had better tournaments than the one Politza posted this week – Caleb VanArragon (4x), Anthony Delisanti (6x) and Nick Seitz. This was the best Valpo tournament by someone other than Delisanti and VanArragon since Seitz set a then-program record at -10 in 2014.
• Politza tied for third with three others, two strokes behind Texas' Sterling Hurd and Middle Tennessee's Connor Henry, who shared medalist honors at -10.
• Senior Adam Melliere (Zionsville, Ind. / Zionsville) tied with Politza for the team's best Round-3 score at 72 (E). Melliere had four birdies to balance out four bogeys in the final round.
• The team's second-best 54-hole tournament score came from freshman Tyler Samaan (Elgin, Ill. / Burlington), who tied for 49^th in the field at 223 (+7). His best score was a 1-under 70 in Round 2.
• As a team, the Beacons finished seventh of 13 at 875 (+11) for the tournament. Host Rice took the team title at 850 (-14).

Up Next
The Beacons will be back on the course this coming week for the Badger Invitational, which will begin on Sunday at University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wis. A link to live scoring will be available via Clippd.