Taylor Pendrith Leads No. 24 Men's Golf to General Hackler Championship Title
3/12/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
MURRELLS INLET, S.C. - Junior Taylor Pendrith (Richmond Hill, Ontario) earned his first career title after carding a 54-hole score of 215 (-1) en route to a first-place finish by the No. 24 Kent State men's golf team at the General Hackler Championship at TPC of Myrtle Beach on Tuesday.
The Golden Flashes won the tournament with a nine-over 873, matching the score of No. 17 Arkansas. KSU entered the day two shots back of the Razorbacks, and after carding a 1-over 289, the squad managed to pull even with Arkansas in team scoring. No. 29 Tennessee finished in third in the 11-team field at 16-over, followed by host Coastal Carolina (+28).
"It was a very good field and it was a great win for us today," said Head Men's Golf Coach Herb Page. "We didn't get out of the gate very fast and we weren't playing very well. But we hung in there the first day and in the second round we made seven or eight birdies to give us a chance to win today. The last three guys for us today birdied the 18th hole. We never led the tournament until the last player came in."
Pendrith and Tennessee's Oliver Goss climbed up the leaderboard on the final day to finish the tournament at 1-under 215. Pendrith moved from fifth to the top spot by totaling a 3-under 69 this afternoon.
Junior Corey Conners (Listowel, Ontartio) finished just one stroke behind Pendrith to place third with an even-par 216. He was one-under after the 15th hole in the final round, but he bogied on the 16th and 17th put him at one-over. However, Conners finished the round with a birdie on the 18th to post even-par 72.
Sophomore Taylor Zoller (Charleston, S.C.) was tied for fifth place heading into today, but added six strokes in his final round to finish in 12th with a 221 (+3). Junior Kyle Kmiecik (Avon, Ohio) placed 30th with 14-over par and senior Kevin Miller (Dover, Ohio) finished 16-over for 39th.
Playing as an individual, sophomore Charlie Phillips (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) finished 57th overall with a 246.
The Golden Flashes will now gear up for the Seahawk Intercollegiate in Wilmington, N.C., on March 24-25.
