ETSU’s Kristjansson finishes season at NCAA Championships
BRADENTON, Fla. – ETSU junior Gudmundur Kristjansson wrapped up play at the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship on Monday morning at Concession Golf Club.
Kristjansson, who was playing in his first NCAA Championship and registered the first-ever hole-in-one of his career during Friday’s opening round, finished with a 54-hole score of 10-over-par 226 (78-72-76), placing him in a tie for 79th.
With third-round play suspended late Sunday night, Kristjansson concluded play Monday morning as he recorded a third-round score of 4-over 76. Kristjansson was 3-over through 13 holes when play was halted and parred eight of his final nine holes to end the round.
The top nine individuals from a non-advancing team qualified for Monday’s final round. The cutline was set at 2-over-par after 54-holes of play.
Kristjansson capped off a solid season, which included a pair of tournament wins, tying ETSU’s single-round record and recording the lowest 54-hole score in program history. Kristjansson’s two wins came at the Seminole Intercollegiate and The Greenbrier Collegiate Invitational, while his 9-under-par 63 not only tied ETSU’s single-round record, but it also set the new course record at Southwood Golf Course in the opening round of the Seminole Intercollegiate. The tournament marked Kristjansson’s first-ever collegiate tournament win as he finished with a 54-hole score of 17-under-par 199.
Western Carolina’s Poston wraps career at NCAA Championships
BRADENTON, Fla. – Resuming his third round on Monday morning, Western Carolina senior men’s golfer J.T. Poston concluded play at the 2015 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, placing amongst a 10-way tie for 113th place overall at the tough par-72, 7,483-yard Concession Golf Club.
Poston placed ahead of three golfers that ranked higher than he entering the championship event. He was third among the original six individual competitors that qualified from the regional tournaments.
Poston, WCU’s first and only men’s golfer to ever qualify for the NCAA Championship event, missed the final cutoff for Monday’s final 18-hole medal round, which will determine the NCAA’s individual champion. It also concluded his tremendous collegiate career at WCU, as he finished as the program’s all-time leader in scoring average at 71.73 over 135 career rounds.
Golfers resumed action in the third round on Monday morning after lightning halted play on Sunday evening just a few holes shy of completion. Poston was tied for 95th with five holes remaining at the time of the weather interruption. Struggles in the middle-third of his final 18 holes relegated Poston from 1-under-par five holes into the round to 7-over-par after making the turn onto the back nine and through the completion of 10 holes.
Poston closed his final collegiate round with a score of 12-over-par 84 for the three-day total of 232.
A four-year starter for the Catamount men’s golf program, Poston etched his name into the WCU men’s golf record books. Poston tallied 30 career top-10 finishes, including 21 top-five showings with six individual medalist honors. He claimed back-to-back Southern Conference individual championships among those victories, doing it with style in 2015 in a sudden-death playoff.
In 2013, Poston became just the second WCU men’s golfer to earn an at-large berth into the NCAA postseason field, playing in the East Regional in Chattanooga, Tenn. It was the first of his three consecutive NCAA regional appearances, the final two coming as the conference champion automatic qualifier.
During his career, he was listed on a pair of national player of the year watch lists, gracing both the Ben Hogan and the Haskins Award watch lists. As both a junior and senior, he was among those in contention to represent the United States on the Palmer Cup squad.
The 2013-14 SoCon Men’s Golfer of the Year, Poston was a three-time All-SoCon selection, garnering four career postseason honors as he was dubbed all-freshman in 2011-12.
All told, nine of his final 12 collegiate career rounds were carded under-par, including six rounds in the 60s. He concludes his career in Cullowhee atop the career scoring charts and with the top two individual single-season stroke averages, including the school-record 70.27 in 2013-14 and the 71.13 her averaged as a senior in 2014-15.