UNCG finishes eighth at Irish Creek Intercollegiate

Andy Knox

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Kyle Sonday's second-round score of 2-under-par 69 and solid final rounds by Andy Knox and Colin Chapman helped the UNCG men's golf team to an eighth-place finish in the 13-team Irish Creek Intercollegiate on Sunday.

Competitors completed Saturday's second round, in which play was suspended by rain and darkness, on Sunday morning and played the final round as scheduled on The Club at Irish Creek's 7,099-yard, par-71 layout.

The Spartans, 85th nationally in the golfstat.com rankings dated April 7, earned their best head-to-head win of the spring season by finishing four strokes ahead of North Carolina, which began the tournament at No. 68 and tied with Mercer for ninth in the tournament.

Sonday turned in the second-best round by a Spartan this spring and became the sixth UNCG player to score in the 60s in 2010-11. He joins Robert Hoadley, who has done it five times, including a 67 at Pinehurst last month; Knox (three); Justin Clement (three); Chapman (one); and Will Almand (one). Sonday, returning to action this year after redshirting in 2009-10, has broken par in a round in four of his five tournaments.  

Knox and Chapman delivered 1-over-par 72s in the final round for UNCG, which held the position it occupied after 36 holes of play. The team finished with a total of 882.

The Duke Blue Devils, all of whose players finished tied for 17th or higher, shot a 1-under-par 283 in the final round and won the event by seven strokes over Wake Forest.

The Spartans return to action April 17-19 in the Southern Conference tournament, set for the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence, S.C. Among SoCon programs, they trail only No. 33 Chattanooga in the national ratings.

IRISH CREEK INTERCOLLEGIATE
The Club at Irish Creek (Par-71, 7,099 yards)
Kannapolis, N.C.

Team scores
1. Duke 276-285-283—844; 2. Wake Forest 280-280-291—851; 3. Louisville 284-285-287—856; 4. Middle Tennessee State 292-286-287—865; 5. Kennesaw State 291-285-290—866; 6. Coastal Carolina 290-289-291—870; 7. Charlotte 293-289-291—873; 8. UNCG 294-292-296—882; T9. Mercer 303-293-290—886; T9. North Carolina 294-296-296—886;11. VCU 300-293-299—892; 12. Davidson 305-290-302—897; 13. Francis Marion 303-295-305—903.

Individual scores
Top 10: 1. Lee Bedford (Wake)  69-69-68—206; T2. Jeff Karlsson (Kennesaw) 75-66-68--209; T2. Yaroslav Merkulov (Duke) 73-68-68—209*; T2. Jason Millard (MTSU) 69-70-70—209; T5. Spencer Anderson (Duke) 70-69-71—210; T5. Evan Beck (Duke) 68-69-73—210; T7. Will Golden (Charlotte) 71-70-70—211; T7. Brinson Paolini (Duke) 68-70-71—211; T7. Julian Suri (Duke) 71-73-68; T7. Sebastian Szirmak (Louisville) 70-72-69—211.

UNCG golfers: T20. Kyle Sonday 74-69-74—217; T36. Colin Chapman 73-75-72—222; T41. Andy Knox 77-73-72—223; T46. Robert Hoadley 74-75-75—224; T62. Will Almand 73-76-79—228; T77. Matt Younts 78-76-83—237.

- UNCG -