Wanted to go back to last week’s Cleveland Golf Palmetto
Invitational at the Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, S.C. to catch up on the latest
outing for Temple, which finished 10th in the 18-team field, an
effort Owls head coach Brian Quinn thought could have been better.
It was a decent field, but nobody in it was a match for
South Carolina, which moved up from No. 37 to No. 31 in the latest Golfstat rankings in the aftermath of
its runaway victory. The Gamecocks, out of the Southeast Conference, rode a
spectacular performance by individual champion Will Miles, a senior from Hilton
Head Island, S.C., to a whopping 35-shot victory over No. 61 Virginia and No. 67
Alabama Birmingham.
South Carolina opened with rounds of 12-under 268 and
11-under 269 over the 6,617-yard, par-70 Palmetto layout in an opening-day
double-round before cooling off with a final round of 4-under 276 last Tuesday
for a 27-under 813 total. South Carolina is in the midst of another strong
showing against one of the best men’s fields of the spring in the Valspar
Collegiate in Palm City, Fla. as I write this post. I should be able to get to
the Valspar later in the week.
You can go ahead and argue about how tough the golf course may
or may not have been, but none of the other teams tamed it the way South
Carolina did.
Virginia’s tournament was highlighted by a solid 8-under 272
in the second round, but the Cavaliers closed with a 14-over 294 to gets its
share of second with UAB at 8-over 848. Virginia, out of the Atlantic Coast
Conference, has come back since then with a solid sixth-place finish in the
Linger Longer Invitational in Greensboro, Ga. that I did daily posts on over
the weekend.
UAB had a pair of 2-over 282s in the opening-day
double-round and closed with a 4-over 284 in earning its share of runnerup
honors.
ACC power Clemson struggled in the final round with a 294 to
finish in fourth place at 15-over 855, seven shots behind Virginia and UAB. The Tigers
were the highest-ranked team in the field, entering the Palmetto at No. 13, but
they fell back to No. 19 in the latest Golfstat
rankings in the aftermath of their showing in Aiken. Clemson did put together a
solid 3-under 277 in the second round.
No. 84 Memphis also closed with a final-round 294 to finish
fifth at 19-over 859, four shots behind Clemson.
Temple had opened the spring portion of its 2018-’19
schedule with a decent tie for fifth place in the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate
on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island. But the Owls had trouble solving the
Palmetto layout, opening with a 12-over 292 and improving a little in the
afternoon of the opening-day double-round with an 8-over 288 before a
final-round 297 left them in 10th place at 37-over 877.
Miles appeared to be playing a different golf course than
the rest of the field as he blitzed the Palmetto layout with a 6-under 64 and a
5-under 65 in the opening-day double-round before closing with a ho-hum 2-under
68 for a 13-under 197 total.
It was nine shots better than the trio – two of whom were
Miles’ teammates – that finished tied for second place at 4-under 206 could do.
South Carolina’s Scott Stevens, a senior from Chattanooga,
Tenn., had to be pretty proud of putting together three rounds in the 60s, but
he had to settle for one of those co-runnerup spots. Stevens sandwiched a
2-under 68 with a pair of 1-under 69s in getting it to 4-under for the
tournament.
Ryan Stachler, a senior from Alpharetta, Ga., matched Miles’
5-under 65 in the second round after opening with a 69 to actually creep within
five shots of his en fuego teammate
before cooling off in the final round with a 72 to also join the group tied for
second.
Caleb Proveaux, a junior from Livingston, S.C., contributed
a 4-under 66 to South Carolina’s blazing start in the opening round. He added a
1-over 71 before finishing up with an even-par 70 to give the Gamecocks a fifth
finisher in the top five. Proveaux shared fifth place with Clemson’s Jacob
Bridgeman, a freshman from Inman, S.C., at 3-under 207.
Rounding out the South Carolina lineup was Jamie Wilson, a junior
from Mt. Pleasant, S.C. who closed with a 1-under 69 to join the group tied for
19th place at 5-over 215.
Joining South Carolina’s Stevens and Stachler in the trio
tied for second place at 4-under was UAB’s William Walker III, who actually matched
Miles’ blazing 6-under 64 in the opening round. Walker backed off with a 2-over
72 in the afternoon of the opening-day double-round before closing with an
even-par 70.
It was a solid showing for Clemson’s Bridgeman, who made a strong
run to the third round of the U.S. Junior Amateur last summer at Baltusrol Golf
Club. Bridgeman had rounds of 1-under 69 and 2-under 68 in the opening-day
double-round before matching par in the final round with a 70 to join South
Carolina’s Proveaux in the tie for fifth at 3-under 207.
Proveaux’s more accomplished teammate, Bryson Nimmer, a
senior from Bluffton, S.C. and the No. 29 player in the World Amateur Golf
Ranking, finished in a tie for seventh place with Virginia’s Jimmie Massie, a
sophomore from Lynchburg, Va., at 1-under 209.
Nimmer also had a strong opening day with a 3-under 67 and a
2-under 68 before falling back with a 4-over 74 in the final round. Massie
ripped off a 5-under 65 in the second round before closing with a 3-over 73.
Furman’s Keller Harper, a junior from Atlanta, finished
alone in ninth place with an even-par 210 total. He got hot in the afternoon of
the opening-day double-round with a 3-under 67 before closing with a 3-over 73.
John Barone, a redshirt senior from Dunmore, led the way for
Temple as he ended up among the group tied for 21st place at 6-over 216.
Barone posted a 1-over 71 and an even-par 70 in the opening-day double-round
before falling back with a final-round 75.
Another Temple veteran, Trey Wren, a senior from Suffolk, Va.,
sandwiched a 2-over 72 with a pair of 3-over 73s to finish in the group tied
for 29th at 8-over 218.
Redshirt junior Erik Reissner, a two-time Central League
champion at Harriton, closed with a solid 2-over 72 to join the group tied for
36th at 9-over 219.
Senior Gary McCabe, a La Salle product, struggled a little
in the final round with a 77 to end up in the group tied for 56th at
224. Freshman Conor McGrath, a product of the Academy of the New Church,
sandwiched a 73 with a pair of 78s to
finish in the group tied for 72nd place at 229.
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