Chattanooga ties for ninth at NCAA Columbus Regional
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Chattanooga Mocs men’s golf team battled Saturday but could not make up enough ground to reach the top five and advance from the NCAA Columbus Regional. UTC shot 291 (+7) in the final round to end up tied for ninth on the Scarlet Course.
The Mocs tied Charlotte with a 54-hole total of 889. Fifth-ranked New Mexico captured the regional, shooting 870. The Lobos will be joined in Atlanta for the NCAA Championship by No. 18 Auburn (872), No. 20 South Carolina (872), UNLV (878) and Texas Tech (879). Virginia’s Denny McCarthy fired a 5-under par 66 to claim the individual berth from a non-advancing team.
Senior Steven Fox closed out his collegiate career tying for 22nd. His even-par 71 Saturday led the Mocs and gave him a three-round total of 221. He ended up three shots ahead of Liam Johnston, who tied for 37th at 224.
Two strokes separated the remaining three UTC student-athletes. Chris Robb shot 226 to tie for 48th. That was one clear of Davis Bunn, who tallied 227, and two from Benni Weilguni at 228.
UNM’s James Erkenbeck won medalist honors with a final-round 68. His 3-under par 210 was four better than a trio of golfers tied for second, including McCarthy, Dominic Bozzelli (Auburn) and Matthew NeSmith (South Carolina).
Chattanooga completes another successful season. The team captured its sixth Southern Conference Championship and fifth in seven years. Robb won his second collegiate title in October at the Bridgestone Golf Collegiate.
Georgia Southern finishes 12th at NCAA Columbus Regional
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Georgia Southern golf team capped a tough weekend at the NCAA Columbus Regional by shooting a 309 in the third round at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course Saturday as the Eagles placed 12th in the tournament.
New Mexico shot a team-low 283 to move from fifth to first (+18), while Auburn (+20) and South Carolina tied for second. UNLV (+26) and Texas Tech (+27) rounded out the top five to advance to the NCAA Championship finals at the Capital City Club Crabapple Course in Atlanta on May 28-June 2.
Virginia’s Denny McCarthy posted a tournament-low 66 Saturday to tie for second (+1) and earn the individual bid to the finals. New Mexico’s James Erkenbeck fired a 68 to finish 3-under for the tournament, making him the only player under par, and take medalist honors.
Christian Humber led Georgia Southern, which teed off on hole 10 again Saturday, with a 75, and Scott Wolfes posted a 76. Hayden Anderson finished with a 78, Will Evans notched an 80 and Charlie Martin, who fought his swing all week and valiantly battled through the three rounds, posted an 86.
The weekend was not indicative of the Eagles’ season as Georgia Southern won three team tournaments and finished in the top five in six of their 12 events. GSU won consecutive tournaments for the first time since 1982 and won three tourneys in a season for the first time since the 2008-09 campaign.
The Eagles lose just one senior and return their quintet from this weekend, which also played in the SoCon Championships, to next season’s roster. Matthew Mierzejewski, who played on the Eagles’ two tournament-winning teams in the fall and recently qualified for the U.S. Open Sectionals, also returns.
Humber birdied hole 14 today and was 1-over through 11 holes. The junior bogeyed holes 3, 4 and 8 on the front to finish 4-over for the third straight day. Wolfes double-bogeyed 16 and was 3-over through his first 12 holes. The sophomore posted bogeys on holes 4 and 6 to finish 5-over. The pair tied for 43rd at 12-over for the week.
Anderson birdied 10 and 12 and was even through his first eight holes before hitting a snag on hole 18. He tried to cut the corner on the par-4 dogleg left, and it went through some trees and through the fairway where it apparently got lost in the rough. The junior had to tee it up again, and he struggled through the rest of the hole, making a 9. He recovered to birdie hole 1 but made three straight bogeys on holes 4, 5 and 6.
Evans was 3-over through his first nine holes and parred four straight holes as he made the turn. A double-bogey on hole 2 started a downward slide, and the junior posted three straight bogeys on holes 4, 5 and 6.
Martin’s highlight of the day was a chip-in for birdie on hole 12, but the sophomore finished his first nine holes 9-over with three double-bogeys.
College of Charleston duo concludes play NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
BATON ROUGE, La. – Junior Alex Ellis and freshman Josh Lorenzetti wrapped up competition in the 2013 NCAA Men’s Golf Baton Rouge Regional on Saturday at the University Club.
Ellis carded a 7-over 79 for the final round to finish with scores of 74-78-79=231 (+15) and finished tied for 45th place.
Lorenzetti shot a 12-over 84 for the final round to finish with scores of 77-85-84=246 (+30) and finished in 75th place.
The Baton Rouge regional was statistically the most difficult regional of the six sites, with a stroke average of 76.32 for the tournament.
The teams that finished in the top five and advanced to the NCAA Championship were: Alabama (+4), Florida (+10), LSU (+26), Tennessee (+28) and Coastal Carolina (+30). Tyler Klava, from South Alabama, who shot +2 for the tournament, was the top individual on a non-advancing team and will advance to the NCAA Championship as an individual.
Despite the way Ellis and Lorenzetti finished, both had successful 2012-13 seasons. Lorenzetti became the first freshman in CofC men’s golf history to win a conference championship, by winning the Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championship this season. Ellis finished eighth at the SoCon Championship and was named to the all-conference team.
Davidson’s Fountain finishes tied for 17th at NCAA Tallahassee Regional
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Davidson’s Richard Fountain finished with a 54-hole total of 211 (-5) to come home tied for 17th out of 75 competitors at the 2013 NCAA Men’s Golf Tallahassee Regional on Saturday afternoon.
The three-day event hosted by Florida State was played on the 6,965-yard, par-72 Golden Eagle Golf & Country Club layout.
Fountain concluded his second NCAA Regional appearance with an eagle, 14 birdies and nine bogeys or worse.
Sitting at 1-over after four holes, Fountain birdied three of his next four to make the turn in 34 (-2) and 7-under overall. After a par on the opening hole, his 10th of the day, Fountain had trouble once again with the 390-yard second, suffering a double-bogey to fall back to 5-under.
A native of Raleigh, N.C., Fountain got one of those strokes back on the short par-5 fourth but bogeyed the sixth to fall back to even-par on the day.
A two-time all-conference selection, Fountain wrapped up his junior campaign with a 73.8 stroke average, eight sub-par rounds, three top-five finishes and six top-10s.
North Florida, which led from start to finish, recorded a three-day total of 830 (-34) to claim the team title by three strokes over No. 6 Washington (-31). The host Seminoles held on to third, while Georgia Tech and Oklahoma also advance to the NCAA Championship with their top-five finishes.
The Huskies’ Cheng-Tsung Pan captured the individual title at -15 (67-67-67) by three shots over MJ Maguire (UNF), Chase Seiffert (Florida State) and Daniel Walker (Richmond). Walker will also move on to the NCAA Championship by virtue of being the low individual outside of the top five teams.
The NCAA Championship will be played May 28-June 2 at Capital City Club Crabapple Course in Atlanta, Ga.
Western Carolina’s Poston finishes 38th at NCAA Tallahassee Regional
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Western Carolina sophomore J.T. Poston fired a final-round 4-over par 76 on Saturday, finishing his first-ever trip to a NCAA Men’s Golf Regional tied for 38th overall as the Tallahassee regional concluded at the par-72, 6,965-yard Golden Eagle Country Club.
Two birdies among his first six holes left the Hickory, N.C., product at 2-under par a third of the way through his final round in Florida. However, three straight bogeys on his final three holes before the turn relegated him to 1-over par heading to the front nine. Poston finished his final round with six pars but three bogeys to shoot 4-over 76.
Poston’s 38th-place finish is the third-best showing by a Catamount men’s golfer at a NCAA regional tournament in program history while his three-round score of 3-over par 219 represents the second-best Catamount score all-time. Matt Cook finished tied for 14th (2008) and 20th (2007) overall with Cook’s 8-under par 208 in the 2008 NCAA East Regional serving as the school benchmark.
Turning in rounds of 1-under par 71 on Thursday and even-par 72 on Friday, Poston finished sixth among the 10 individual competitors granted at-large berths into the regional.
Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan – ranked fifth in the nation according to GolfStat – turned in three consecutive rounds of 5-under par 67 to claim individual medalist honors with a 15-under 201. The leader through the first two rounds, M.J. Maguire of North Florida, shot 1-under 71 for a three-day total of 204 to finish tied for the runner-up spot with Florida State’s Chase Seiffert.
North Florida took the top honors to pace five teams advancing to the NCAA National Championship, shooting 7-under 830 to edge second-place Washington (833) by three strokes. ACC foes Florida State (836) and Georgia Tech (849) finished third and fourth, respectively, with Oklahoma and South Florida tying for the final cut-off spot in fifth at 854. The Sooners claimed the final transfer spot, defeating USF in a tiebreaker on 18th hole. Oklahoma had a combined score of 17, while USF had a 20.
Daniel Walker of Richmond is the one individual who advances to the NCAA Championships along with five team qualifiers out of the Tallahassee regional.