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UDM junior David Byrne broke out of a two-way tie after 36 holes to claim the individual medal at the 2009 Detroit Titans Invitational, a men's golf tournament concluded Saturday at the Golden Fox in Plymouth. Byrne's final margin of victory after three rounds was six strokes over Dayton's Chris Woeste.
In the 54-hole team competition, the 2008 runner-up from Baltimore, Loyola College (307 final round-894 total), posted a seven-stroke win over Dayton (301-901). Defending champion Detroit (298-300) moved up one spot from its 36-hole position to finish in a third-place tie with Butler (300-903). St. Bonaventure (301-905) rounded out the first five in the team standings.
Tied with Dayton's Woeste at one-over par entering the final day of play, Byrne went to work quickly on Saturday, birdying three of the first nine holes to turn at 2-under overall for the tournament. He offset two bogeys coming in with two more birdies to finish with a three-under 69 for the day and a two-under 214 total for the tournament. That let him win his third collegiate tournament by six strokes as Woeste shot a final-round 75.
Byrne became the second straight UDM player to win the Titan Invitational, following on the heels of 2008 senior Mark Sommerfeld a year ago. Sophomore teammate Britt Pronk joined Byrne in this year's Top 20 as he claimed 18th place (79-227).
The tournament was Detroit's last of the regular season as the Titans now turn their attention to the Horizon League Championship, to be contested April 27-28 in Lexington, KY.
“This was a pretty good last tune-up for us. 'Byrnie' really played well, and he could have taken it even deeper with a few breaks. I'm really happy for him to get the win like he did,” Titans coach Mark Engel said. “Jeff (Clarridge, 73) really finished strong, Britt had a couple good rounds… these are the things we'll try to build on as we get ready this week for the conference championships.”
-Detroit Titans-