Fernandez, Knabe team for Heart of American Four-Ball title

OVERLAND PARK, KS (August 10, 2016) -- On June 12th Ben Fernandez and Connor Knabe won the Kansas Four-Ball, almost exactly two months later the duo paired together once more to this time claim the Heart of America Four-Ball title. Playing at Milburn Golf & Country Club the Kansas State teammates completed their run to the title with an impressive 6&5 victory in the title match against former UMKC player Park Ulrich and current SMU Mustang Alex Higgs. The 36-hole final started a bit slowly for Fernandez and Knabe as they were 1 down after six holes. However, once this duo gets on a role they don't slow down. If you remember back to their Kansas Four-Ball title they shot back-to-back 11-under 61's to win the title. Fernandez, a redshirt freshman at Kansas State, and Knabe, a senior, began their title match run with a win on the 7th to square the match. The run continued with wins on Nos. 8, 11, 12 and then for good measure 18 to take a 4 up lead after the opening 18-holes. Following a series of halves Ulrich and Higgs won the 22nd hole to creep within in 3 down but wins on the 28th, 29th and 31st holes closed out the match. The Heart of American Four-Ball began on Monday with Round of 32 matches and each of the first two days included two rounds of play. Fernandez and Knabe reached the finals thanks to a 3&2 win over Chase Hanna and Preston Fleenor in the semifinals. Ulrich and Higgs outlasted Jeff Bell and Jon Platz 2 up in their semifinal match.