A pair of quality rounds from Jacob Armstrong were the highlights for the University of the Fraser Valley men's golf team at The Prestige Individual Invitational in La Quita, Calif. this week.

The Cascades were facing a talented field of golfers from NCAA Division I powerhouse programs, including LSU, Texas, Washington, Kansas, Princeton, and reigning national champion Pepperdine. 

Playing under blustery conditions at Coral Mountain Golf Club, Armstrong was the top Cascade – he carded a one-over 73 in Monday's opening round and a one-under 71 in Wednesday's finale, sandwiching an 84 on Tuesday. The wind on Tuesday was extreme, inflating scores across the board – not a single golfer in the field shot under par.

"Jake was awesome this week," Cascades head coach Aaron Pauls said of Armstrong, who tied for 37th at +12 for the week. "The two rounds – one-over on the first and and one-under the last day – were really solid rounds of golf, which was great to see from Jacob. He plays super-steady golf anyways, even when we're back home at Chilliwack Golf Club. But it was nice to see him translate that success from Chilliwack to a much harder golf course. He's beaten guys from really big D1 schools, so he was pretty excited about that and the guys were excited for him."

THE PRESTIGE INDIVIDUAL INVITATIONAL FULL RESULTS

The rest of the UFV roster struggled on a tough course in windy conditions. Jackson Jacob (+25) was 55th, followed by Jacob Lucki (+28, 58th), Eli Greene (+29, 59th) and Ben Whiton (+47, 62nd).

"I think there were a couple things to take away," Pauls said. "One is that sometimes you're going to play more difficult courses than you're used to, where you get out here and you're hitting a five-iron into a par 4 rather than a nine-iron, and it requires a different set of skills. It's eye-opening. You go home and you realize, I may not need this at Chilliwack, but I might need it next time in Palm Springs, so maybe you work harder at that. It's very clear now that there's things everyone can work on.

"And then the other piece of it is, I think it's valuable to play people who are better than you. Maybe they are, maybe they're not, but this field was far tougher than our normal events. Then we come home, having experienced this, all of a sudden it doesn't seem like as difficult a task to win. I think it helps leading up to a national championship event, to say, 'Wow, we could really win this.'"

Up next for the Cascades is the Victoria Vikes Invitational, March 5-7.