Western Carolina finishes 13th at Cardinal Invitational
SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. – Western Carolina senior J.T. Poston fired a final round 1-under-par 71 to lead the Catamounts to a 13th-place finish Tuesday at the Cardinal Intercollegiate at the par-72, 7,100-yard University of Louisville Golf Club.
Starting on the back nine, the Hickory, N.C., native birdied his first hole of the day before a double-bogey and bogey left him 1-over-par through three holes. Two additional bogeys on the back nine left him in unfamiliar territory, making the turn at 4-over for his final round. Poston rallied, though, scoring birdie on five of the final nine holes to shoot 1-under for the third round.
All told, Poston carded rounds of 72, 79 and 71 for a three-day score of 220, amidst a four-way tie for 15th in the final standings.
Freshman Bright Julamool finished his final round with a 4-over-par 76, slipping four places into a four-way tie for 30th overall at 224. After playing the first six holes of Tuesday’s final round at even-par, a double-bogey on the par-3 16th left the Bangkok, Thailand, product making the turn at 2-over. He remained at 2-over-par until consecutive bogeys on the par-4 7th and par-3 8th left him 2-over on the front nine and 4-over for the day.
Rounding out WCU’s scoring five for the tournament were freshman Jackson Bishop in a tie for 67th overall at 234 (83-70-81), senior Braydon Obremski in 80th at 240 (81-78-81) and junior Tyler Lail in a tie for 83rd at 246 (87-81-78). It was the best 54-hole tournament score for Bishop in his WCU career, as he carded a career-low round of 2-under-par 70 on Monday.
Tournament host Louisville rallied past second-round leader Louisiana-Monroe to successfully defend its team championship honors. The Cardinals fired a closing-round 289 to erase the stroke deficit and edge ULM by one, 870-871. Cincinnati rallied from sixth to finish third overall at 877 with Austin Peay (879) and UT-Martin (882) rounding out the top five schools.
Greg Smail of Louisiana-Monroe advanced three places on the final day to force a two-way tie atop the individual leader board, matching Eastern Kentucky’s Patric Sundlof at 5-under-par 211. Smail carded his low round of 69 on Tuesday to claim medalist honors, while Sundlof shot 1-under 71 to finish tied.
Western Carolina returns to action next Monday and Tuesday at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate, hosted by NC State at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course. WCU finished 14th collectively as a team a year ago, while Poston finished fourth individually. Poston additionally played the course in the NCAA Raleigh Regional in the postseason.
Samford finishes 12th at Shoal Creek Invitational
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University men’s golf team completed play in the 2014 Shoal Creek Invitational hosted by Graeme McDowell on Tuesday as the Bulldogs posted a three-round score of 931 (306-307-318) at the 54-hole competition held at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club.
Samford closed out the tournament with a final-round tally of 318 and concluded the two-day event in 12th place. Despite turning in its worst round of the competition Tuesday, the Bulldogs still finished just six strokes behind 11th-place Mississippi State (306-313-306=925) and 16 strokes away from 10th-place Georgetown (307-306-302=915).
North Florida won the team competition at the 2014 Shoal Creek Invitational with a final mark of 5-under-par 859, while Alabama (862), host-school UAB (864), Ole Miss (878) and Memphis (879) rounded out the top five.
Individually, Samford’s Austin Jackson paced the team with a 54-hole total of 230 (75-76-79). The Bulldogs’ sophomore native of Germantown, Tenn., was followed by Robert Adams (233), Chris Clouser (235), Ashton Nix (239) and Ivan Truss (240).
The Shoal Creek Invitational marked just Samford’s second competition of the 2014 season. Next up, the Bulldogs are slated to participate in the AutoTrader.com Collegiate Classic, which will be held Oct. 13-14 at the Berkeley Hills Country Club in Duluth, Ga.