SMU Golf Finishes 2nd At C-USA Championships

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TEXARKANA, Ark. (SMU) – After being tied through 15 holes, the SMU Mustangs fell just short of their first Conference USA Championship since 2006 as Houston’s Roman Robledo birdied two of the last three holes to secure the title for the Cougars on Tuesday at the Texarkana Country Club.

Robledo took the individual title as well, beating SMU’s Bryson Decheambeau by two shots. Dechambeau finished at six-under, but was as much as 10-under during the front nine. SMU held a seven-stroke advantage after Sunday, but Houston caught the Mustangs during a strong second round yesterday.

“This one will hurt for a while,” Head Coach Josh Gregory said. “We put ourselves in position to win and unfortunately we gave this one away. Give it to Houston, they finished like they needed to and we didn’t. This will hopefully serve as great motivation for the NCAA Regionals.”

SMU (21st) and Houston (29th) were the two highest-ranked teams coming into the C-USA Championships according to the GolfWeek/Sagarin rankings.

Mario Clemens finished fifth at three-under after carding a final round of even-par play. Clemens was three-under on the day after 13 holes, but bogeyed three of the last five to fall back to even par. Austin Smotherman also earned a top-15 finish, totaling a three-over 219.

UCF finished third, while UAB and Marshall rounded out the top five.

SMU will now turn its focus to the NCAA Regionals, a three-day event that will begin on May 16.