Salazar sizzles to win GCU Invitational

Monday, March 15

Phoenix, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

GCU Invitational

Photo by: Brandon Sullivan

3/16/2021 3:56:00 PM | Men's Golf, Paul Coro

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Senior turns game around to finish among 4 Lopes in top 7

By: Paul Coro

Final results

From nearly worst to first, Grand Canyon senior golfer Michael Salazar dramatically turned around his golf game in a week but kept to his approach to never check the GCU Invitational leaderboard Tuesday.

A week after the former WAC Tournament runner-up struggled a 20-over finish in Oregon, Salazar eagled a par-five GCU Championship Golf Course hole Tuesday to wonder if he was in contention.

"Congratulations," onlookers said after the last putt from Salazar, who replied, "Did I win or what?"

Salazar did, and easily. His final round of 5-under-par 66 put him at 6 under for his final home tournament and captured his first title since October 2019. Salazar was among four GCU players who finished in the top seven, but three were entered as individuals.

The Lopes took third place at 14 over par behind champion Wichita State (10 under par) and runner-up Southern Mississippi (12 over par), but the individual GCU entries' scores would have compiled a team finish of 7 under par for the tournament.

The dramatic turnabout in Salazar's game was just what he needed with his Lopes career winding down to two remaining regular-season tournaments and the April 30-May 2 WAC Championships.

"There's no better way to end it than like this," Salazar said. "My game was completely different from this week compared to last week in Oregon. Hopefully, all this momentum will carry on to my last couple events, especially to help this team at conference.

"I got into a really good zone that I used to do back when I was playing really good. I was thinking this could be my last tournament, especially my last home tournament, so I tried to focus, swing aggressive, be confident and have fun."

Salazar even had an in-tournament reversal after closing his first round with three bogeys over six holes and carding a triple-bogey on his second round's second hole. He settled from there, keeping to one- and two-putts all tournament and moved to within two strokes of the lead entering Tuesday.

Facing unusual windy conditions, Salazar dropped short birdies on three of his final round's first six holes because of how well he hit his irons. For his eagle, the pin was tucked behind a bunker but he attacked it with an 8 iron after a fortuitous long drive. That 5-foot eagle sent him to the lead in a 94-player field.

He then dropped a 30-foot birdie and protected his lead with a safe play, settling for bogey from a downhill bunker lie on his second-to-last hole.

Salazar finished three strokes ahead of teammate Adam Veenstra, a senior who shot 1 under on Tuesday to finish the tourney at 3 under.

"Mike's obviously a really good player and you have bad weeks from time to time, but hopefully winning this does a whole lot for his confidence coming down the stretch because we're going to need a lot more of that play," GCU head coach Mark Mueller said.

Lopes junior Matt Polivka, a former club player also entered as an individual, and senior Trevor Lampson tied for sixth place at even. Lampson made a birdie on the 18th hole to push GCU to third place, a stroke ahead of Eastern Michigan.

"We expected to win today, but it's an improvement from what we have been doing," Mueller said. "We just have to keep building on this, have a good couple weeks of practice and be playing our best golf at the end of April in Las Vegas."

Salazar walked off his home course as a champion Tuesday. It was made all the more special with his father, Joe, coming to town for the rare chance to walk a collegiate tournament with him for two days.

"I've enjoyed every single minute on and off the golf course at GCU," Salazar said. "My teammates are great. The coaches are also amazing. My golf game has been up and down so I've been trying to figure that out, but hopefully I can stick to what my mindset was at this tournament for a while and keep going with that."