Storms Shorten Aggie Invitational to 36 Holes
4/1/2017 10:50:00 PM | Men's Golf
BRYAN, Texas – No. 7 Kent State endured a long day of golf and finished in the middle of a pack loaded with nationally ranked teams Saturday at The Traditions Club. Storms on Sunday canceled the final round at The Aggie Invitational and gave the Golden Flashes a seventh place finish in a shortened 36 holes. Despite not having one of their better outings of the year, the Flashes were just nine strokes out of fourth place.
On their final nine holes of the day, the Flashes played nearly mistake-free as the top four golfers of the round combined to go 4-under with just two bogeys.
"We pride ourselves in being in good physical and mental condition," Head Coach Herb Page said. "We knew it could be the last nine holes we'd get to play and these guys never packed it in."
Junior Chase Johnson (Barberton, Ohio) led the way for the Flashes, shooting 1-over 73 in each of his two rounds and finished tied for 19th place. Johnson knocked in three birdies in his opening round and sank two more birdies by the first five holes of his second round. He stayed at par or better in each of his last nine holes.
"It was a good sign to see Chase under par in parts of both rounds," Page said. "Before this weekend, he had been struggling a bit by his standards and yesterday he was really close to being the one that brought our team score way down."
Senior Josh Whalen (Napanee, Ontario) is tied for 28th place after a pair of 2-over 74 rounds. Following a double bogey on his fourth hole, Whalen settled in and played even after his next 14 holes. During the back nine of round two, he put together back-to-birdies.
Just behind Whalen in a tie for 31st place was junior Ian Holt (Stow, Ohio) and sophomore Bjarki Petursson (Borgarnes, Iceland) at 5-over on the day. Holt piled up six birdies in his second round 72. Petursson matched Holt's 72 in the second round with a pair of birdies on the front nine.
"Ian just overpowers the golf course," Page said of Holt's four birdies on par fives. "He just had a couple of bad shots that were tough to recover from."
Sophomore Gisli Sveinbergsson (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland) got off to great start with an eagle on the fifth hole. Sveinbergsson finished the first round with a 2-over 74. His second round 78 did not come in Kent State's top four as he dropped back to 52nd place.
"Gisli had a very long second shot on high-risk, high-reward hole," Page said of the eagle. "Then he made a fringe putt from about four feet away."
No. 8 LSU won the shortened tournament with an 11-under 565.
"We've got some things to work on," Page said. "But we had been playing so well and our expectations were so high that this weekend was a good opportunity for us to understand how good the competition can be and where you can finish when you're not at your best. We needed more birdies."
The Golden Flashes return to action April 15-16 at Boilermaker Invitational in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Players Mentioned
