Kent State University
General Hackler Championship
Holt Leads Flashes' Final Charge at General Hackler
3/11/2018 4:38:00 PM | Men's Golf
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Kent State jumped up four spots in the teams standings, following a sharp final round Sunday at the General Hackler Championship. The Golden Flashes tied for the third best performance of the day with a 6-under 282 at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club.
The Flashes were 16-over after two rounds, but finished in sixth place among 15 teams at 10-over with a 297-295-282=874.
"At one point today we were 12-under and playing as well as anyone in the tournament," Head Coach Herb Page said. "We bobbled our momentum some at the end with three different three-putts on our last hole. But this was still one of our better rounds of the year."
Senior Ian Holt (Stow, Ohio) put together one of the most impressive runs of the tournament Sunday with birdies on five consecutive holes from 13 through 17. Holt finished the day 5-under, moving him up to 15th place for the tournament at 1-under.
"Ian was spectacular today," Page said. "He had to make some par putts to get going and all of the sudden he gets five in a row. It's been a while since I've seen one of our golfers do that."
Senior Chase Johnson (Barberton, Ohio) also moved up the individual leaderboard with a 1-under 71 on Sunday to finish tied for 35th place. Johnson had three birdies in the final round, including a pair on par fives. Johnson tied for the eighth best score on par fives throughout the event at 5-under. As a team the Flashes finished third on par fives at 15-under.
"What really got us back was that we were playing better on par fives today," Page said.
Junior Gisli Sveinbergsson (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland) tied Johnson for the tournament in 35th place at 1-under. Sveinbergsson was 1-over on Sunday, but birdied hole 15 for the third time in as many rounds. He tied for the seventh most birdies at the tournament with 12.
Freshman Will Kurtz (Hudson, Ohio) matched Johnson's 1-under on Sunday behind four birdies. Kurtz finished in a tie for 51st place with an 8-over 224.
"Chase and Will both had very good rounds," Page said.
Junior Bjarki Petursson (Borgarnes, Iceland) tallied three birdies on the day, but his 4-over final round put him at 9-over for the tournament.
Freshman Josh Gilkison competed as an individual and carded a 3-over on Sunday to finish tied for 45th place for the tournament at 6-over.
No .8 Georgia Tech won the tournament with a 16-under, while No. 2 Texas A&M was in second at 11-under.
"We beat some teams ranked ahead of us," Page said. "As good as we were today, we struggled yesterday. Wind seems to be our Achilles heel and it was blowing hard yesterday. We're being a little too technical with our shots and that might be due to not getting outside as much as we'd like for practice."
The Golden Flashes return to action March 25-27 in Charleston, S.C. at the Hootie at Bulls Bay.
Players Mentioned
