Strong showing by 2023 CGA Amateur runner-up Gage Messingham helps UNC men to a season-best 2nd-place finish
By Gary Baines – 2/27/2024
The University of Northern Colorado men’s golf team finished runner-up out of 20 schools in the Loyola Intercollegiate on Tuesday, marking by far the Bears’ best showing of the season.
Adding to the accomplishments, two UNC individuals placed in the top 10 in a 116-player field in Goodyear, Ariz., with freshman Pietro Boeris of Italy finishing a college-career-best fifth and sophomore Gage Messingham of Arvada placing seventh despite a quadruple-bogey 8 on his next-to-last hole.
For Messingham — who tied for second place in last year’s CGA Amateur — it marked his second individual top-10 of the season, and his college-career-best showing in a team tournament.
Boeris went 69-67-69 for an 11-under-par 205 total, which left him three strokes behind champion Jake Skarperud of North Dakota State. Boris carded eight birdies on Tuesday.
Messingham backed up rounds of 68-67 with a 72. He made four straight birdies on the front nine and was 4 under for his first 14 holes, but posted a snowman on the par-4 17th at Palm Valley Golf Club. Messingham’s other top-10 this season was a fourth at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational individual tournament.
As for UNC’s squad as a whole, Tuesday marked the Bears’ best team showing since their victory at the Big Sky Conference tournament last April. The Bears were 25 under par as a team this week, finishing 15 strokes back of winner North Dakota State. Air Force tied for 14th place, at 3 under.
For all the scores from the Loyola Intercollegiate, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com