Marquette began play Monday in its 10th and final Conference USA Championship Tournament at the Grand Bear golf course in Gulfport, Miss., searching for its first-ever conference title.

Last year Marquette finished in 10th place, while Texas Christian won its third consecutive title. The Horned Frogs — ranked 11th in the nation, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index — have won every year since joining C-USA in 2002 and are the favorite again this year.

Junior Joe Weber led the Golden Eagles last year at the tournament, taking 20th place and shooting 222.

Marquette finished in 7th place at the conference tournament in 2001 and has yet to finish higher.

The spring season has seen the Marquette golf team go through many ups and downs. The Golden Eagles won their first tournament at the Bethune-Cookman Spring Invitational in February, but since then the team has struggled to stay consistent.

The Golden Eagles finished 12th at the El Diablo Intercollegiate, only to follow that up with a strong fourth place finish at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate. At the Marshall Invitational last weekend — the team's last tournament before conference — the Golden Eagles took a disappointing 13th place.

The theme, repeated by the players and head coach Tim Grogan during the spring season, has been 'we have not yet played our best golf.'

There's no better time than now for them to find their stroke.

After day one of competition Marquette is in 10th place with a team score of 306 (18-over-par). Freshman Ted Gray is leading all Golden Eagle golfers with a score of 73 (one-over-par). He was tied for second in the C-USA field with a total of 13 pars on the day.

"It is disappointing," Grogan said. "Overall, the whole year we have averaged (a score of) 292."

"It's a very challenging course, you have to shoot some good golf to shoot par out here," he said.

Texas Christian leads all teams with a score of 278 (10-under-par) and is eight strokes ahead of second-place Alabama-Birmingham (286 — 2).

Robin Smith from East Carolina leads all individual golfers with a 66, good for six-under-par.

Also scoring for Marquette were senior Steve Sass (76, four-over-par), currently tied for 34th place, sophomore Michael Bielawski (77, five-over-par) in 41st place, junior Kyle Murphy (80, eight-over-par) in 58th place and Weber (81, nine-over-par) in 64th place.

"Ted Gray played well with a 73," Grogan said, "but a fourth score of an 80 is unacceptable, and that tells a lot about why were in the place we are in.

Play will resume today at 9 a.m.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 19 2005.