The Georgia Southern men’s golf team had its ups and downs over its first two tournaments of the fall portion of its season, only to let loose with a dominant showing at The Hummingbird Intercollegiate at the Country Club of Sapphire Valley on Tuesday in Cashiers, N.C.
The Eagles held a nine-stroke lead after the first two rounds of play on Monday and never left anything to doubt with another strong performance in the final round. All of Tuesday’s counting scores came in under par as the Eagles finished at 30-under par for the tournament, a full 13 strokes clear of second place Morehead State and 21 strokes ahead of third-place Florida Atlantic.
Steven Fisk claimed individual medalist honors for the second consecutive week as his cumulative 10-under score led all golfers. The Eagles’ senior leader will be a threat on the individual leaderboard in most tournaments this season, but it was the youth that brought home the team title for Georgia Southern.
A trio of freshmen finished in the top-10 of the individual leaderboard, with Mason Williams (-7, T5), Wilson Andress (-6, T7) and Ben Carr (-5, T10) all putting up three solid rounds.
Williams paced the Eagles with a 6-under 65 in Tuesday’s tournament-clinching final round. In all, the nine total rounds played by the Eagles’ freshmen lineup netted six under-par rounds, two at even par and just one round — Carr’s 72 on Tuesday — that was a single stroke over par.
“I think it shows the kind of expectations we have with this program,” Collins said. “We expect to compete in every tournament, no matter how old or young we are. That’s how we compete in tournaments and that’s how we compete in practice to determine lineups.”
The Eagles will try to keep up the momentum as they travel north to begin their third tournament in less than three weeks. On Sunday, the Eagles will tee it up at the Fighting Irish Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. Georgia Southern could have a score to settle as it trailed only the hosting Irish at the end of last year’s tournament.
