Scots Walker and Franssen help Missouri

University win Turning Stone title

The winning University of Missouri team and their head coach. Rory Franssen is on left of back row and Euan Walker is on the right end of the back row. Thanks to all our readers for their help in identifying where the Scots were in the picture.

VERONA, New York - The University of Missouri men's golf team, which included Scots Euan Walker from Troon and freshman Rory Franssen from Inverness,  won its fifth consecutive team trophy at the annual Turning Stone-Tiger Intercollegiate. It was their first competition of the 2016-2017 US college golf season.
Missouri (Mizzou) did it  with an impressive come-from-behind surge, shooting a 279-stroke third round as a team (283-290-279 -- 852) to make up a seven-stroke deficit on No. 24 Texas A and M (279-287-293 -- 859) on Monday on the Kaluhyat Course (par-72, 6,857 yards).
Leading the way for head coach Mark Leroux's group were senior (final year student) Euan Walker (Troon, Scotland) and junior Trevor Ullestad (Jewell, Iowa), who both fired 3-under-par tournament aggregates for the 54-hole event to tie for third overall. Walker was strong in two-of-three rounds of golf at Turning Stone, recording scores of 69-76-68. Ullestad, a newcomer to Mizzou after transferring from Indian Hills Community College, was steady with rounds of 70-72-71 for his overall total of 213.
Right behind Walker and Ullestad was senior Linus Lilliedahl (Sandviken, Sweden), who recorded a 2-under-par event (70-75-69 -- 214) to place fifth as an individual.
Playing as an unattached individual, sophomore Matt Echelmeier (Columbia, Mo.) represented Mizzou well with a Top 10 finish, placing tied for ninth with an even-at-par tournament (72-71-73 -- 216).
Rounding out Mizzou's line-up at the Turning Stone were freshman (first-year student)  Rory Franssen, a member at Nairn Golf Club, playing in his first US college tournament, and sophomore Preston Fleenor (Kansas City, Missouri), who finished at 3-above-par (T-13th) and 5-above-par (16th), respectively.
The Tigers' comeback in the final round of the tournament on Monday was set up by the steady play of the group, eliminating Texas A and M's seven-stroke advantage and creating a seven-stroke lead of their own. Mizzou finished the event at 12-under-par as opposed to the Aggies' 5-under-par.
Mizzou is next in action at the Jackrabbit Invitational in Valentine, Nebraska, from Sept. 25-Sept. 27.

+Euan Walker, a member of Kilmarnock Barassie Golf Club,  received a top award in US collegiate in May.
He was named Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year, selected by a panel of coaches in the Conference.
Walker has been a force for the University Of Missouri golf team, the Tigers, on the course and in the classroom, compiling a 4.0 cumulative grade point average in mathematics while appearing in his golf team line-up for the entire 2015-16 season.
Walker proved to be one of the team's most consistent golfers during the 2015-2016 season, recording a 73.4 stroke average, good enough for second-best on the squad.
He was the Tigers' first or second-best finisher in six of the team's 10 events during the 2015-16 campaign.
The honour is the second conference recognition in Walker's career, as he earned a place on the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team as a newcomer in 2013-14