The NC State men’s golf team traveled to Grand Haven, Michigan for the Folds of Honor Collegiate at American Dunes Golf Course. The tournament consisted of 90 players from 18 schools. The trip to Michigan was the second of four tournaments for the Wolfpack this fall.
The Wolfpack finished eighth of 18 teams, a welcome improvement off a last-place finish in its season opener. The Pack defeated ACC rival Clemson by six strokes and finished just one stroke behind host Michigan State, who took seventh.
The standout performer for the Pack was senior Maximilian Steinlechner, who finished in second place as an individual with scores of 73, 69 and 69 for a 5-under par total. Steinlechner’s final round of 69 got him into a playoff for medalist honors with Jonathan Yaun of Liberty. Yaun pulled away on the second playoff hole with a chip-in birdie.
Steinlechner’s performance was partly due to his great play on par 4s at American Dunes. He was one of two players to finish below par in par 4s for the tournament at 3-under. Steinlechner finished the tournament with 11 birdies and was the only member of the Pack to make an eagle, and he led the Pack in scoring average on the par 3s and 5s as well.
Steinlechner strong performance gave the red-and-white a chance to make a run for the title, but the rest of the team struggled to keep up. Senior Carter Graf, who tied for 31st, was the second-best finisher for the Pack After suffering a rough first round with a score of 81, Graf came back strong with rounds of 73 and 70 to close the tournament.
Junior Spencer Oxendine finished the week with a score of 227, 11-over par. Oxendine got off to a strong start with scores of 73 and 76 in the first and second rounds but faltered in the final round with a 78, which included two double bogeys on par 5s. Oxendine placed in a tie for 40th.
Other competitors for the Pack included freshman Michael La Sasso who tied for 46th and junior Ethan Choi who concluded his tournament in a tie for 59th.
As a team, the red-and-white played best in the second round, shooting an even 288. The team was best on par 4s as it was 7th out of 18 teams with a scoring average of 4.19 and worst on par 5s, finishing ninth of 18 teams with a scoring average of 5.05.
The Pack was much better at converting birdies than it was in its first tournament, finishing tied for fifth among the schools competing with 40 total birdies. The Wolfpack also had 163 pars, good for sixth place in that department.
The Wolfpack will play at home for the first time this season on Oct. 15-16 at Lonnie Poole Golf Course for the Wolfpack Intercollegiate.
