Vinnie Murphy captures WAC Championship

Sunday, April 30

Mesa, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

4/30/2017 4:29:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: Mark Oshidari

MESA, Ariz. – Vinnie Murphy of the Grand Canyon men's golf team used a bogey-free 68 to capture medalist honors at the Western Athletic Conference Championship on Sunday afternoon at Longbow GC in Mesa.

"I am very proud of the boys... to go out as WAC Champions as both the team and individually was just awesome," said head coach Mark Mueller. "Billy and Hayden did a great job in the final round and for them to go out as WAC Champions was just really cool. Jake really battled and gave a score the last day that helped us win. As a freshman, he had an outstanding year and we look forward to him being even better next year. Matty is a great kid and a big team guy. He had a win early in the fall and was a big reason for much of our success. Unfortunately he struggled in the final round on Sunday, but that should motivate him even more to tighten up his game this summer. Vinnie had an incredible year finishing with eight top-10's and one win. He still has room to grow and we really want to see him get even better."

Murphy's consistent play with rounds of 71, 71, 68 for a 210 (-3) total was two shots better than Seattle's Kyle Cornett at 212.

When all was said and done, GCU finished with four golfers in the top-8. Joining Murphy in the top-8 was Hayden Webb in 5^th, Billy Comeaux in 8^th and Jake Chanen also in 8^th.

"As a team we had four wins and five individual wins, we climbed 125 spots in golfweek and we had the lowest team and individual scoring average in the WAC," said Mueller. What this team did this year was nothing short of amazing and I want to thank the players, leadership, coaching staff and my family for all of the support of the program. I'm really looking forward to next year and getting better every day."

As a team, the Lopes would have shot a team score of +8 (286, 286, 290 = 862), which would have won the WAC title by five shots. The Lopes were ineligible to win the team title due to NCAA transition rules.

Seattle earned the team title with an 867 total.

Murphy becomes the fourth different player to claim an individual title for GCU this season joining Comeaux (twice), Chanen and Matt McClung.