Brian Quinn’s Temple Owls opened the spring portion of their
2018-’19 season last week, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go back and play a
little catch-up.
Temple was coming off a solid fall campaign, capped by a
team win in the City 6 Championship on a cold, windy Saturday at Galloway
National Golf Club at the Jersey Shore, when the Owls headed for Hilton Head,
S.C. for the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate Feb. 25 and 26.
Temple actually grabbed the lead after the opening-day
double-round in Hilton Head as the Owls, behind senior stalwart Trey Wren of
Suffolk, Va., had the lead with rounds of 4-over 292 and 7-over 295 for an
11-over 587 total.
Wren, who had set a program record for consecutive rounds in
the 60s in the fall, had the individual lead after 36 holes as he opened with a
1-under 71 over the 6,913-yard, par-72 Wexford Plantation Course layout and
added a 3-under 69 in the afternoon for a 4-under 140 total.
The final round did not go as well for either the Owls or
Wren, but it was hardly an awful performance for a bunch of guys who probably
hadn’t swung a golf club anywhere except in a simulator for quite a while.
Temple fell back in the final round with an 11-over 299 that
left them in a tie for fifth with Davidson in the 19-team field at 22-over 886.
Wren struggled to a 4-over 76, but still finished at
even-par 216 and in a tie for fifth in the individual standings.
Meanwhile, Charleston Southern, which began the final round
11 shots behind Temple, surged past the Owls and the rest of the field with a
remarkable 10-under 278 that gave it a 12-over 876 total and a four-shot
victory over Furman.
Charleston Southern had four sub-par rounds and was the only
team in the field that bettered par over
the two days. Shows you how much ground you can make up if you have four
players playing their best golf at the same time. Charleston Southern had
opened with an 8-over 296 and a 14-over 302 in the double-round Feb. 25. Furman
carded a solid 4-over 292 in the final round for a 16-over 880 total that
earned runnerup honors for the Paladins.
Memphis was the highest-ranked team in the field and posted
a solid 1-over 289 in the final round to finish third at 17-over 881 total, a
shot behind Furman. The Tigers came right back and finished sixth in this
week’s Colleton River Collegiate at the Colleton River Club’s Pete Dye Course
in Bluffton, S.C.
I posted on that event, which had a higher-caliber field,
mostly due to the presence of Penn State. Memphis began that event ranked 89th
by Golfstat and its finish, a shot behind
the Nittany Lions, moved it up a spot to 88th in the latest Golfstat rankings that I checked as I
gathered the information for this post.
Winthrop matched par in the final round with a 288 to grab
fourth place at 21-over 885, a shot ahead of Temple and Davidson. The Wildcats
carded a solid 4-over 292 in the final round to earn its share of fifth place
with Temple at 22-over 886.
Charleston Southern was led by Connor Moore, a sophomore
from Bluffton, S.C. who fired a 4-under 68 in the final round to finish alone
in seventh in the individual standings at 1-over 217. Moore had opened with a
solid 1-under 71, but faltered in the afternoon round of the first day of the
tournament with a 6-over 78.
Alan Smith, a freshman from Winchendon, Mass., carded a 3-under
69 in the final round that moved him into the top 10 as he ended up among the
group tied for 10th at 3-over 219. Alan Smith had posted a pair of
75s in the opening-day double-round.
Elliot Gothe, a junior from Sweden posted a 2-under 70 in
the final round that boosted him into the group tied for 13th at
4-over 220. Brandon Smith, a junior from Las Vegas, gave the Buccaneers four
players under par for the day with his 1-under 71 that left him among the group
tied for 21st at 6-over 222.
Rounding out the Charleston Southern lineup was Brandon
McBride, a freshman from Bluffton, S.C. who finished up with a 77 to end up in
the group tied for 58th at 232. McBride’s second-round 76 was a
counter for the Buccaneers.
The individual title went to Memphis’ Brad Bawden, a senior
from England who sandwiched an even-par 72 in the second round with a pair of
2-under 70s that left him with a 4-under 212 total.
High Point accounted for the next two spots in the
individual standings with Brandon Einstein, a freshman from Clemmons, N.C.,
earning runnerup honors a shot behind Bawden and teammate Brendan MacDougall, a
junior from Canada, another shot behind Einstein in third.
Einstein matched Charleston Southern’s Moore for the low
round of the day with a 4-under 68 that got him to 3-under 213. MacDougall, who
had opened with a 3-under 69 before adding a 2-over 74 in the second round,
closed with a 1-under 71 to end up at 2-under 214.
Akron’s Elliott Grayson, a senior from Shelby, N.C., matched
par in the final round to finish alone in fourth at 1-under 215.
Joining Temple’s Wren in the tie for fifth was Davidson’s
Jack Lang, a senior from Lexington, Mass. who finished strong with a 2-under 70
to end up at even-par 216.
Gardner-Webb’s Patrick Wu, a sophomore from Taiwan, and Bawden’s
Memphis teammate, Isaiah Jackson, a junior from Golden, Miss., shared eighth
place, a shot behind Charleston Southern’s Moore at 2-over 218. Wu closed with
a 1-over 73 while Jackson matched par in the final round with a 72.
The low round for Temple in the final round belonged to
senior Gary McCabe, who starred scholastically at La Salle. McCabe carded an
even-par 72 that left him among the group tied for 21st at 6-over
222. McCabe also contributed an even-par 72 to Temple’s strong opening round
before falling back with a 6-over 78 in the second round.
John Barone, a redshirt senior from Dunmore, was a shot
behind McCabe in the group tied for 25th at 223 after a final round
of 4-over 76. Barone got off to a good start with a 2-over 74 and a 1-over 73 in
the opening-day double-round.
Freshman Connor McGrath, an Academy of the New Church
product who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, finished among the
group tied for 45th at 229. After a pair of 3-over 75s in the
opening-day double-round, McGrath closed with a 79.
Redshirt junior Erik Reisner, a two-time Central League
champion at Harriton, had a rough day in the opening-day double-round, but
bounced back with a counting 3-over 75 in the final round that left him in the
group tied for 84th at 242.
Bucknell struggled to an 18th-place finish with a
939 total, but there were a couple of interesting names in the Bison lineup.
Junior Peter Bradbeer, a Friends’ Central product who
captured the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Patterson Cup in 2017 at
Wilmington Country Club’s South Course, finished among the group tied for 81st
at 240. Bradbeer had a 77 and an 80 in the opening-day double-round before
finishing up with an 83.
Bradbeer plays out of Merion Golf Club. Pretty sure his dad
is Brad Bradbeer, the president of Merion who was quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Joe Juliano in
an article about the USGA awarding the 2026 U.S. Amateur to the historic East
Course.
Also teeing it up for Bucknell was sophomore Chris Tanabe,
who won the 2016 PIAA Class AA title as a senior at Quaker Valley. Tanabe
struggled in the opening-day double-round, but bounced back with a 3-over 75 in
the final round to finish 94th at 260.
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