The NC State men’s golf team opened the second half of the season with an 11th-place finish in Rio Grande at the Puerto Rico Classic, a tournament which featured six top-25 teams.
This was the team’s first competitive action since early November, and there may not be a better place to come back to the game of golf than on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. The Wolfpack didn’t put together its best performance, but it was still able to play on an absolutely stunning golf course: the Rio Mar River Course.
The three-and-a-half month break from golf was evident in the Wolfpack’s Day One performance, as the team shot a combined score of 297 [+9] and finished the round in 13th place.
Senior Carter Page from Waynesville was the lone bright spot for the Pack in an otherwise dreary day. He finished with a first round score of 71 [-1], the only player on the roster to shoot below par.
Despite the tough round one result, the Wolfpack strung together 15 total birdies on the day, five coming from Page and four apiece for senior David Cooke and junior Jacob McBride.
The team was unable to improve on Day Two, and although the round score of 295 [+7] was two strokes better than the first round, the Pack dropped to 14th in the standings.
Page was again the only NC State golfer who found a sense of rhythm, and he reciprocated his Day One result with a score of 71 [-1].
Freshman Stephen Franken also recorded a 71 [-1] on the day, a 10-stroke improvement from his first round score of 81 [+9].
Nine spots from a top-five finish, the golfers really had nothing to lose on the third and final day of the tournament. They came out firing and recorded their best score of the three-day tournament with a combined score of 285 [-3], which vaulted it into 11th place in the stacked field.
Page rounded off his terrific tournament with a stunning 66 [-6] which was enough to push him up to third in the individual standings. This score, the best of his career and for any Wolfpack golfer this season, marks the first top-three finish during his tenure with the Wolfpack. He finished behind two Alabama golfers, both representatives of the school who went on to win the tournament by nine strokes.
Stephen Franken also impressed with a score of 69 [-3], and his overall score of 221 [+5] placed him second amongst the Pack.
The upperclassmen, Cooke and McBride, really struggled throughout the tournament and finished with double-digit scores above par.
Consistency again did not show for the Pack, which has been a talking point all season long. Without the unbelievable performance from Page, the result would have certainly been less than ideal.
The team will look to bounce back on March 7 when it travels to Aiken, South Carolina, for the 2016 Palmetto Intercollegiate.
