Charleston Southern Fall Invite: A comeback
PC photo
CHARLESTON, S.C. (Oct. 21, 2008) -- The Murray State Men’s Golf squad is familiar with winning, they’ve done it 12 times in the last four seasons. However, the manner in which they won the Charleston Southern Fall Invitational in Charleston, S.C. Tuesday was one for the history books.
The Racers began the final round 11 shots off the lead of Stetson 592 to 603.
MSU fired a final round 289, resulting in an amazing 21-shot swing, overcoming an 11 shot deficit to win by 10.
“Being the third place team, we went out about an hour before the top two teams,” MSU Head Coach Eddie Hunt said. “Our goal was to shoot the best round of the tournament and we did that and it worked out that we got the win.”
Presbyterian College's Thomas Todd opened the event by shooting one of the worst rounds of his career with an 80 in the first round. He responded in the second round by firing the second lowest score in the first two days with a 69.
Todd returned to the golf course on Tuesday for the final round in the same form he concluded the second round, catapulting himself from 10th place after the first two rounds to first place with a final round 66 to take medalist honors.
Todd carded a tournament-best two eagles and a second-best 13 birdies en route to his win.
The tournament victory for Todd marked the first for the Blue Hose this fall.
Murray State started with a 308 in round one, improved 13 shots in round two posting a 295, then blistered the Crownfield Plantation course with a tournament-best 289 in the final round for the 10-shot win at 892.
Mitchell Moore posted a fourth place finish with rounds of 78-68-74=220. His 4-under 68 in round two was the low round in the field of 61 competitors. Cameron Carrico placed ninth with rounds of 73-80-70=223. Chris Griffin and Hunter Ford shared 15th place. Griffin had scores of 78-78-72=228, while Ford came in with rounds of 79-76-73=228. Jared Wolfe finished 26th with scores of 81-73-78=232.
The victory in South Carolina is the third win of the year for MSU, each by 10 shots.
Stetson had a 310 in the final round and a 902 total for second place, while Radford shot a 308 and finished third with a 903 total.
Hunt and team had an 11 hour drive ahead of them on the way back to Murray and hit the road before the other teams finished, only to receive a phone call later with the news of the their victory.
“It sure makes ride home a lot more fun.” Eddie Hunt added.
--Various AD sources used in this article