It was a weekend for golf. With the Masters tournament going on just a chip and a putt to the south in Augusta, Georgia, the golf team played host to the annual Courtyard at Marriott Intercollegiate at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary this weekend.
The tournament field consisted of 14 schools from around the nation including No. 14 Tulsa, No. 18 North Carolina and No. 19 Duke, who has won the tournament the past two years.
Over the two-day, 54-hole tournament N.C. State was able to muster a 5-over-par score of 869, which was good enough to tie for seventh place.
Coach Richard Sykes said a few blunders early on kept the team from finishing better.
“We started off poorly,” Sykes said. “The first nine holes knocked us out of the tournament.”
Indeed, the Wolfpack had to dig out of a bit of a hole after the first round Friday, which put them toward the bottom of the leader board. However, thanks in part to a 3-under-par 69 in the third round by junior Jerry Richardson, State was able to earn a respectable finish.
Richardson, a business management major, said the round was a little slow getting started but he was able to build some momentum on the back nine.
“Well, I finally started holing some putts on the back nine,” Richardson said. “I made about a 15-foot putt for par on number 13 that really helped me get going.”
Richardson would then go on to make four birdies and shoot a four-under-par 32 on the back side.
Darren Blair, a freshman in psychology, tied with Richardson for the lowest individual scores on the team. Both players shot 3-under for the weekend. The next closest State players were senior Stephen Lewton and sophomore Chase Duncan, who both finished at 3-over par.
Even though the team’s finish was a little disappointing this weekend, Sykes is optimistic about how things are coming around for the team as they prepare for championship play.
“Coming down towards the end of season, Jerry Richardson is starting to play real well, Darren Blair is playing really well, Stephen Lewton has played fantastic all spring, and Garry Hill competed well for us as an individual,” Sykes said. “We’re looking for that fifth guy to step in for us and hopefully during these last couple weeks before the conference tournament, we’ll figure out who needs to be where.”
The team is set to compete next at the ACC Championship, which will be held April 21-23 at Old North State Golf Club in New London, N.C.
