Penn State men’s golf coach Greg Nye was probably starting
to wonder if his Nittany Lions could ever really recapture that magic of the
final round of the Washington Regional at Aldarra Golf Club in Sammamish, Wash.
last spring when they surged to a fifth-place finish that earned them a trip to
the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms.
And then Tuesday in the final round of the Colleton River
Collegiate at the Colleton River Club’s Dye Course in Bluffton, S.C., there it
was again.
There was Ryan Davis, the sophomore from Berkeley Heights,
N.J., putting a bad round in the rear-view mirror and firing a 3-under 69 over
the 7,198-yard, par-72 Dye Course. There was senior Cole Miller, the
Northwestern Lehigh product who claimed the individual regional crown that day
in Sammamish, firing a 2-under 70.
There was Charles Huntzinger, the junior from Duluth, Ga.,
playing like, well Charles Huntzinger, matching Miller’s 2-under 70. And there
was junior JD Hughes, the Carlisle product, posting a solid 1-over 73.
It added up to a sparkling 6-under 282, easily the best team
round of the tournament. And while it wasn’t nearly enough to catch the
impressive winner, Iowa State, No. 80 in the latest Golfstat rankings and probably headed up, it did get the No. 41
Nittany Lions a share of fourth with Big Ten rival Michigan State, ranked 50th,
at 32-over 896.
More importantly on a day when the incessant March wind
eased a little, Penn State looked like the team that proved it belonged with
the big boys a year ago.
And there was one other echo from last spring. Alec Bard,
thrust into the lineup at the regional as a freshman, competed as an individual
at Colleton River and the sophomore from New Hartford, N.Y., was one of two
other players who shared fourth place with Miller in the individual standings
at 2-over 218.
Bard’s opening-round 70 and final-round 71 would have given
Penn State a runnerup finish in the team standings. But, as I’ve mentioned
before, had Bard been playing better than the first five, he would have been in
the first five. After two days in Bluffton, he’s knocking on the door again.
When everybody on the team is competing against each other
to make that first five, when it comes tournament time, competing becomes
second nature.
Play was suspended Monday evening with the second round
incomplete. Iowa State returned to the course Tuesday morning and completed a
second straight 8-over 296 that probably won the tournament for the Cyclones.
Nobody else came close to breaking 300. Penn State, for instance, carded a 311
that left it 22 shots behind Iowa State.
Iowa State matched par in the final round with a 288 for a
16-over 880 total that gave the Cyclones a 13-shot victory.
Miami of Ohio, behind individual champion Brian Ohr, a
redshirt junior from Northbrook, Ill., and No. 103 Cincinnati shared second
place at 29-over 893. Miami of Ohio matched par in the final round at 288 while
Cincinnati fired a 3-under 285, the second-best round of the day behind Penn
State.
The Nittany Lions’ sparkling 282 gave them a share of fourth
with Michigan State at 896. The Spartans posted a solid 3-over 291 in the final
round.
Two more Big Ten entries, No. 147 Rutgers and No. 86
Wisconsin, were next in line, the Red Knights finishing sixth at 905 after a
final round of 2-over 290, and the Badgers ending up seventh at 919 after a
final round of 10-over 298.
Iowa State was led by the Down Under duo of Lachlan Barker,
a freshman from Australia who shared fourth place with Penn State’s Miller and
Bard at 2-over 218, and Sam Vincent, a sophomore from New Zealand who finished
alone in seventh place at 3-over 219.
Vincent’s 3-under 69 led the way for the Cyclones in the
final round while Barker finished up with an even-par 72. Frank Lindwall, a
freshman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, completed a second-round 80 Tuesday morning,
but bounced back with a 1-under 71 to finished tied for eighth at 6-over 224.
Tripp Kinney, a sophomore from Waukee, Iowa, finished up
with a 76 to end up in the group tied for 15th at 226. Denzel
Leremia, a redshirt senior from New Zealand, struggled in the final round with
an 82 to finish tied for 39th at 232. But Kinney and Leremia picked
up the team in the second round with respective scores of 74 and 73. It was a
round spread over two days in which menal toughness might have been the most
important club in the bag.
Ohr. like so many other players in the field, stumbled to a
5-over 77 in the second round after opening with a 2-under 70. But he had the
best round of the day, a 4-under 68, to capture the individual title as the
only player to finish under par at 1-under 215.
Cincinnati had the next two spots in the individual
standings with Austin Squires, a junior from Union, Ky., claiming runnerup
honors and Andy Mayhew, a redshirt freshman from Dayton, Ohio, finishing third.
Squires carded a 2-under 70 in the final round to end up at
even-par 216, a shot behind Ohr. Mayhew was another shot back at 1-over 217
after matching par in the final round with a 72. Mayhew and Iowa State’s Barker
were the only players under par in the difficult second round, Mayhew with a
2-under 70 and Barker with a 1-under 71.
Miller’s final round of 2-under 70 came on the heels of a
pair of 74s that earned him his share of fourth at 2-over 218. Bard struggled
to a 77 in the second round before finishing up with his 1-under 71 to join
Miller at 218.
Hughes, who captured the Pennsylvania Amateur title at White
Manor Country Club last summer, struggled with rounds of 76 and 77 before
finishing up with his 1-over 73 that enabled him to finish in the group tied
for 15th at 226.
Davis opened with rounds of 76 and 81, but got back to work
with a 3-under 69 that enabled him to join Hughes in the group tied for 15th
at 226.
Huntzinger is a much better player than the one who shot 77
and 82 in the first two rounds at Colleton River. He proved that with his
final-round 70 that boosted him into a tie for 25th at 229.
Rounding out the Penn State lineup was junior Ryan Dornes,
the runnerup in the 2014 Class AAA Championship as a senior at Manheim
Township. A 78 Tuesday left Dornes tied for 58th at 237, although
his second-round 79 was a counter for the Nittany Lions.
As I mentioned in my post wrapping up Monday’s incomplete
double-round, Dornes was playing as well as Miller was at this time last year
when an injury ended his season. You have not heard the last from Ryan Dornes.
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