Penn State came up seven shots shy of the final berth out of
the NCAA Columbus Regional to the NCAA Championship in the final appearance for
Cole Miller, one of the best players in the history of the program.
But the other four players who comprised the lineup in
Columbus are back for head coach Greg Nye and three of them were key players in
the Nittany Lions’ run to the NCAA Championship in the spring of 2016.
Last weekend in the Rod Myers Invitational, hosted by Duke
at its Duke University Golf Club in Durham, N.C., Penn State made it clear it
means business this season.
Led by Charles Huntzinger, a senior from Duluth, Ga., Penn
State captured the team title, edging the host Blue Devils and North Carolina
by two shots to kick off the 2018-’19 season in impressive fashion.
Penn State got it going right from the start as JD Hughes, a
senior from Carlisle, fired a 6-under-par 66 in the opening round to help the
Nittany Lions fire a 10-under 278 that was the best team round of the
tournament. They added a 1-under 287 in the second round of Saturday’s double
round and posted another 1-under 287 with host Duke closing fast in Sunday’s
final round for a 12-under 852 total.
“Winning this tournament title had everything to do with a
collective team effort down to the wire,” Nye told the Penn State website. “We
were in a really good frame of mind going into the final hole and things turned
out for the Nittany Lions. I’m awfully proud of the way we went about our
business.”
Huntzinger has been so solid during his entire time at Penn
State. He carded a pair of 1-under 70s in Saturday’s double round and matched
par in the final round with a 72 for a 4-under 212 total that left him in a
group of six players tied for sixth in the individual standings.
Hughes, who won the 2017 Pennsylvania Amateur title at White
Manor Country Club, cooled off after his sizzling opening round, matching par
in the second round with a 72 and posting a 4-over 76 in the final round to
finish alone in 11th place at 2-under 214.
Ryan Dornes, the runnerup in the 2014 PIAA Class AAA
Championship as a senior at Manheim Township, was playing nearly as well as
Miller was early in the spring of 2016 when an injury stopped his season. He
was not part of the five who represented the Nittany Lions in Columbus last
spring.
But Dornes opened his senior season in the Rod Myers by
sandwiching a 1-over 73 with a pair of 1-under 71s that left him in the group
tied for 12th at 1-under 215. He was a counter in every round.
Ryan Davis, a junior from Berkeley Heights, N.J., finished
in the group tied for 23rd at 2-over 218. So clutch as a freshman
during Penn State’s run to the NCAA Championship in 2016, Davis had 1-under 71s
in the first and final rounds around a throw-out 76 in Saturday’s second round.
Alec Bard, a sophomore from New Hartford, N.Y., did make the
trip to Columbus last spring as a freshman. After opening with a 77 in the Rod
Myers, Bard posted clutch rounds of 72 and 73, picking up Davis in the second
round and Hughes in the final round. It’s how five-score-four works when your
five are working well together.
The Dookies were ranked in the high 20s by Golfstat when they finished fifth in the
ACC Championship last spring. Hey, it’s a tough league for golf.
But on the next-to-last day of the 2017-’18 season at the
Karsten Creek Golf Club, there Duke was taking on Alabama in the national
semifinals. The Blue Devils were swept, 5-0, by the Crimson Tide, but the final
four at the NCAA Championship is really, really strong.
Led by Chandler Eaton, a junior from Alpharetta, Ga., Duke
fired a final round of 8-under 280 for a 10-under 854 total that left the Blue
Devils tied for second with arch-rival North Carolina, two shots behind Penn
State. The Tar Heels, who also reached the NCAA Championship in the spring,
trailed Penn State by just a shot after two rounds and matched par in the final
round with a 288.
Another ACC entry, Florida State, finished fourth at 4-under
860 behind individual champion John Pak, a sophomore from Scotch Plains, N.J.
The Seminoles finished strong with a 3-under 285 in the final round.
Cincinnati, out of the American Athletic Conference, posted a pair of 2-under
286s after opening with a 294 to take fifth at 2-over 866.
The Ivy League’s Princeton finished 12th in the
13-team field at 910. After posting rounds of 300 and 301 Saturday, the Tigers
finished up with a final-round 309.
Pak opened the tournament with a bang in the form of a
spectacular 10-under 62 in Saturday morning’s first round. He followed that up
with a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round and cooled off with a final round
of even-par 72 for a 13-under 203 total that was seven shots clear of Duke’s Eaton.
Eaton sparked Duke’s fast finish with a final round of
5-under 67, the best round of the day Sunday, as he claimed runnerup honors at
6-under 210.
Duke’s Harrison Taee, a junior from the United Kingdom,
probably earned himself consideration for a spot in the Duke five by getting a
share of third place at 5-under 211 while competing as an individual. Taee
added a 5-under 67 Saturday afternoon to his opening-round 70 to get it to
7-under before backing off with a final round of 2-over 74.
Joining Taee at 5-under 211 were North Carolina’s Ryan
Burnett, a freshman from Lafayette, Calif., and Cincinnati’s Aaron Squires, a
senior from Union, Ky.
After opening with a 68, Burnett carded a 1-over 73 in
Saturday afternoon’s second round and finished up with a two-under 70.
Squires was coming off an impressive run to the
quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, where he was
finally ousted by eventual champion Viktor Hovland, a Norwegian who was a key
member of NCAA champion Oklahoma State in the spring. After opening with a 74,
Squires came on strong with a 68 Saturday afternoon and a final round of
3-under 69.
Joining Penn State’s Huntzinger in the group tied for sixth
at 4-under 212 were Duke’s Adrien Pendaries, a sophomore from France, and North
Carolina’s Austin Hitt, a junior from Longwood, Fla. Pendaries, who won his
match in the Blue Devils’ 3-2 victory over Texas in the opening round of match
play in the NCAA Championship, and Hitt both finished strong, each carding a
3-under 69 in the final round.
Vinay Ramesh, the former Pennsbury standout who defeated
Penn State’s Dornes in a playoff to capture the 2014 PIAA Class AAA title, teed
it up for Princeton. Ramesh, a junior for the Tigers, had their third-best
total as he finished in the group tied for 53rd at 228. After
opening with a 2-over 74, Ramesh carded a pair of 77s.
No comments:
Post a Comment