No. 29 Men’s Golf Advance to Final Stroke Round
5/27/2018 9:17:00 PM | Men's Golf
STILLWATER, Okla.- The No. 29 Kent State men's golf team maintained its top-10 position on the third day of stroke play at the NCAA Championships, finishing eighth to close out the weekend qualifying as one of 15 teams for Monday's final round.
Kent State shot a team score of 5-over par 293, placing the Flashes in eighth overall heading into Monday's final round, in which eight teams will qualify for the start of match play on Tuesday. The Flashes are at 8-over par 872 for the tournament.
"There's pretty deep and talented field here and the top-15 teams advanced today," Said head coach Herb Page. "It was a pretty good round for us today. Yesterday's finish left a bit of a sour taste in our mouth and today we had four birdies on the last hole. We had two different players step up for us today with Bjarki Petursson and Gisli Sveinbergsson. Just goes to show every score is important. We still haven't played our best golf and I'm confident we can do it tomorrow."
Anchoring the Flashes today was Bjarki Petursson, who was the only member of the squad to shoot under-par in the third-round at 2-under par 70. Petursson shot his best round of golf so far in the tournament and went 16 holes for par or better. He started the morning off with back-to-back birdies on holes No. 1 and 2 and birdied the par-5 No. 9. On the back nine, Petursson birdied the 13th hole, followed by five straight pars. He sits in a tie for 45th at 4-over par for the tournament.
Gisli Sveinbergsson finished Sunday's round with an even-par, an improvement from his first two rounds. Despite his four bogeys, they were washed by the four birdies he shot to finish at even-par for the day. Sveinbergsson sits at 11-over par for the tournament and is tied for 103rd. Chase Johnson finished the day at 3-over par 75. Johnson birdied four times and sits at 2-under for the tournament, good for a tie for 14th.
Teammates Ian Holt and Josh Gilkison carded third round scores of 76 (+2) and 77 (+5), respectively. Together they shot a combined six birdies. Holt sits in a tie for 61st at 6-over par, while Gilkison is tied for 72nd at 7-over.
Duke leads the tournament at 10-under 854. Tournament host Oklahoma State is three strokes off the pace in second at 7-under 857, followed by Texas Tech (861), Vanderbilt (866), and Oklahoma (868) rounding out the top-5.
Kent State tees off tomorrow for the final round of stroke play. The remaining teams and individuals will begin the final round of stroke play Monday morning with the day's first tee time set for 11:30 a.m. CT, with the NCAA individual champion to be crowned tomorrow night. It will also be the "Race To Eight" with the top eight teams at the end of the day on Monday advancing to the team match play quarterfinal round which will be held on Tuesday, May 29 at Karsten Creek. Live Coverage from Golf Channel will begin at 3 p.m.
Players Mentioned
