Catamount Men's Golf Finishes Ninth at Bluegrass Invitational
Michael Fitzgerald posted career-best finish to lead WCU
Lexington, Ky. - Western Carolina posted three-consecutive team rounds of 301, completing the second round on Sunday morning and finishing the final 18 on Sunday evening to advance two spots in the final standings, placing ninth at the UK Bluegrass Invitational at the Big Blue Course.
Freshman Michael Fitzgerald shot rounds of 74 and 72 on Sunday, matching his career-low round in the latter to post a career-best finish, tied for seventh, to pace the Catamounts. Sophomore Trey White also recorded the best finish of his career, placing in a tie for 18th after shooting rounds of 73, 75 and 73 for a three-round total of 221.
Rounding out WCU's side were freshmen Jack Walsh (t-39th, 227), Greg Bunner (t-85th, 241) and Collin Witiak (93rd, 246).
Auburn slipped to second in the second round behind tournament host, Kentucky, but rallied with a final round 289 as a team to best the Wildcats by eight strokes, 868-to-876. Akron rallied from 10th after the opening round to finish third at 878, 10 strokes off the pace, with Toledo and Marshall tying for fourth at 892.
Chris Woeste of Dayton advanced 15 places to win the individual medalist honors after a five-under, 67, on the final 18 holes for a three-round score of even-par, 213, ahead of a three-way tie for second place.
Western Carolina now turns its attention to the 2011 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship, April 17-19 at the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence, S.C.
Duke Wins Irish Creek Collegiate, Davidson Places 12th
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. - No. 17 Duke (276+285+283=844, -8) fended off No. 28 Wake Forest (280+280+291=851, -1) late in the third and final round Sunday to win the Irish Creek Collegiate Golf Tournament presented by Carolinas Medical Center - NorthEast and hosted by Charlotte and Davidson in conjunction with the Charlotte Regional Sports Commission at The Club at Irish Creek. Davidson placed 12th (305+290+302=897) in the strong 13-team field on thepar-71, 7099-yard, Davis Love III designed course.
Duke held a four-stroke lead after the first round, but Wake Forest surpassed the Blue Devils by one stroke at the conclusion of the second round, which was completed Sunday morning after being suspended Saturday afternoon due to thunderstorms. Duke retook the lead but saw it close to as little as one stoke with just a few holes remaining. Wake struggled late though and allowed Duke to finish with an eight-stroke lead for the round.
No. 25 Lee Bedford (Wake Forest) won individual medalist honors by three strokes after finishing seven-under par at 206 (69+69+68).
Freshman Sam Echikson (Brussels, Belgium) paced the Wildcats for the tournament, placing in a tie for 27th place at 219, three-over par. Echikson posted a 77 in the first round Saturday, but was not fazed by the inclement weather and suspension of play in the second round, as he posted a three-under par 68, for the best collegiate round of his young career. He and classmate Richard Fountain led the ‘Cats in the third round with three-over 74's.
Wildcat junior Jackson Taylor also posted his best score of the tournament in the second round with a one-under par 70, but was six-over in the first and final rounds to place in a tie for 46th place at 224. Fountain finished at 228 and was followed by teammates John Skeadas (229) and Bobby Urso (232). Senior Christopher Rollins led Davidson's individual players with a 224 (74+75+75) to join Taylor in the tie for 46th place.
Louisville was the lone unranked team in the top-five, placing third at 856, five strokes behind Wake Forest. No. 43 Middle Tennessee State (865) and No. 44 Kennesaw State (866) placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Coastal Carolina was sixth (870), co-host and 2010 tournament champion Charlotte placed seventh at 873. Davidson‘s lone Southern Conference rival in the tournament, UNCG, took eighth at 882, while Mercer and North Carolina tied for ninth at 886. VCU edged Davidson by five strokes to take 10th and Francis Marion rounded out the field in 13th place (903).
Davidson will next compete in the Southern Conference Championship, which returns to the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence, S.C. April 17-19 for the fifth consecutive year.
Spartans take eighth at Irish Creek
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. - Kyle Sonday's second-round score of 2-under-par 69 and solid final rounds by Andy Knox and Colin Chapman helped the UNCG men's golf team to an eighth-place finish in the 13-team Irish Creek Intercollegiate on Sunday.
Competitors completed Saturday's second round, in which play was suspended by rain and darkness, on Sunday morning and played the final round as scheduled on The Club at Irish Creek's 7,099-yard, par-71 layout.
The Spartans, 85th nationally in the golfstat.com rankings dated April 7, earned their best head-to-head win of the spring season by finishing four strokes ahead of North Carolina, which began the tournament at No. 68 and tied with Mercer for ninth in the tournament.
Sonday turned in the second-best round by a Spartan this spring and became the sixth UNCG player to score in the 60s in 2010-11. He joins Robert Hoadley, who has done it five times, including a 67 at Pinehurst last month; Knox (three); Justin Clement (three); Chapman (one); and Will Almand (one). Sonday, returning to action this year after redshirting in 2009-10, has broken par in a round in four of his five tournaments.
Knox and Chapman delivered 1-over-par 72s in the final round for UNCG, which held the position it occupied after 36 holes of play. The team finished with a total of 882.
The Duke Blue Devils, all of whose players finished tied for 17th or higher, shot a 1-under-par 283 in the final round and won the event by seven strokes over Wake Forest.
The Spartans return to action April 17-19 in the Southern Conference tournament, set for the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence, S.C. Among SoCon programs, they trail only No. 33 Chattanooga in the national ratings.
IRISH CREEK INTERCOLLEGIATE
The Club at Irish Creek (Par-71, 7,099 yards)
Kannapolis, N.C.
Team scores
1. Duke 276-285-283-844; 2. Wake Forest 280-280-291-851; 3. Louisville 284-285-287-856; 4. Middle Tennessee State 292-286-287-865; 5. Kennesaw State 291-285-290-866; 6. Coastal Carolina 290-289-291-870; 7. Charlotte 293-289-291-873; 8. UNCG 294-292-296-882; T9. Mercer 303-293-290-886; T9. North Carolina 294-296-296-886;11. VCU 300-293-299-892; 12. Davidson 305-290-302-897; 13. Francis Marion 303-295-305-903.
Individual scores
Top 10: 1. Lee Bedford (Wake) 69-69-68-206; T2. Jeff Karlsson (Kennesaw) 75-66-68--209; T2. Yaroslav Merkulov (Duke) 73-68-68-209*; T2. Jason Millard (MTSU) 69-70-70-209; T5. Spencer Anderson (Duke) 70-69-71-210; T5. Evan Beck (Duke) 68-69-73-210; T7. Will Golden (Charlotte) 71-70-70-211; T7. Brinson Paolini (Duke) 68-70-71-211; T7. Julian Suri (Duke) 71-73-68; T7. Sebastian Szirmak (Louisville) 70-72-69-211.
UNCG golfers: T20. Kyle Sonday 74-69-74-217; T36. Colin Chapman 73-75-72-222; T41. Andy Knox 77-73-72-223; T46. Robert Hoadley 74-75-75-224; T62. Will Almand 73-76-79-228; T77. Matt Younts 78-76-83-237.
Cougars Begin Play in Jim West Intercollegiate
VICTORIA, TEXAS - Freshman Parker Allen fired a one-over 73 to lead the College of Charleston Men's Golf team in the first round of the Jim West Intercollegiate Sunday at the Victoria Country Club. The Cougars are currently in seventh-place and just seven shots backs of second-place as they shot a 12-over 300 for the opening round.
Louisiana Tech sits atop the team leaderboard after a one-under 287. Wes Worster from Texas-Arlington is the individual leader after a four-under 68.
Allen, a native of Blythewood, S.C., who is tied for 11th, was even-par after the first nine holes before birdies on 13 and 14. The Cougars put in a combined 13 birdies for the round.
Senior Coy Breen (+2) and Freshman Alex Ellis (+3) aren't far behind Allen as they are in 20th and 24th place respectively. Junior Seth Stuart rounded out the team scoring for the Cougars with a six-over 78.
The Cougars will tee off from hole one starting at 8:00 AM tomorrow. Live scoring will be available via golfstat.com.
7 College of Charleston 300 300
T11 Parker Allen (5) 73 73
T20 Coy Breen (4) 74 74
T24 Alex Ellis (2) 75 75
T52 Seth Stuart (3) 78 78
T82 John Duke Hudson (1) 86 86
1 Louisiana Tech 287 287 -1
T2 Southeastern Louisiana 293 293 +5
T2 Louisiana-Lafayette 293 293 +5
4 Stephen F. Austin St 297 297 +9
5 UTSA 298 298 +10
6 Texas State 299 299 +11
7 College of Charleston 300 300 +12
8 Texas-Arlington 302 302 +14
9 South Alabama 303 303 +15
10 Sam Houston State 305 305 +17
11 Houston-Victoria 308 308 +20
T12 Houston Baptist 311 311 +23
T12 Mc Neese State 311 311 +23
14 Houston 314 314 +26
15 CSU Fullerton 316 316 +28