HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Southern Arkansas senior golfer George Adams capped an all-around great 2016 Great American Conference Men's Golf Championship Tournament with a final round, even-par 72, to put him at seven-under for the tournament, which secured himself a tie for second-place individually and earned him All-Tournament honors.
 
The runner-up tie for Adams is the best individual finish for a men's golfer at the GAC Championship Tournament, now in its fifth year. The previous best finish came last season as Kirk Peterson placed fourth overall as he went one-over par in 2015.
 
In his final round, Adams overcame a pair of early bogeys on two and three to end the front-nine a one-over as he pared holes 5-7, birdied the par-4 seventh and pared out eight and nine. On the back-nine, Adams pared the first five holes before sinking another birdie, this one on the par-4 15^th, to draw himself to even-par. Adams then pared the final three holes to conclude his round and tournament at seven-under.
 
As a team, the Muleriders were in second-place following the opening round, but major moves from three other teams over the next two rounds pushed SAU down to a fifth-place finish among the 10-team field.
 
Despite the slide in the team standings, the fifth-place finish for the Muleriders in the 2016 GAC Championship Tournament established a new best-team finish for the program.
 
Helping the Muleriders reach that mark was solid final round play from Jacob Etherington, Kyle Gordon, and Kevin Elder. Etherington and Gordon shot +2 (74) on Tuesday while Elder added a +4 (76) to round out team scoring.
 
The Muleriders definitely closed out the spring on a high note as six of their final seven rounds netted team scores under 300 and SAU also ended the spring with a 306.5 team stroke average over their 12-round slate of action.