The N.C. State men’s golf team kicked off its third event of the fall season on Monday, hosting the Wolfpack Intercollegiate at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course. In addition to the Wolfpack, golfers from 15 other schools including ACC members Boston College and Maryland are competing in the event.
The two-day event consists of 54 holes, of which 36 were played. The Pack has two groups competing; the first group finished fourth, while the second ended the day eighth.
The golfers battled rainy conditions throughout the day, but there were no delays as play finished as scheduled. Head coach Richard Sykes praised the efforts of the people who ensured the tournament was possible during the rainy conditions.
“The weather forecast had no chance of us playing much today,” Sykes said. “When you’re hosting, you have to do a lot more than just play. [Assistant coach] Chip [Watson] and the rest of the staff worked their butts off today.”
Sophomore Carter Page led the way for the Wolfpack’s first group, shooting a 141 to finish 12th at 3-under on the leaderboard. Sophomore David Cooke and junior James Chapman were right after Page, shooting a 142 to tie for 13th with several others at 2-under. Freshman Stanhope Johnson was one stroke behind them with a 143 and tied for 20th, and sophomore Chad Cox rounded out the first group, finishing at 154 strokes.
In the second group, freshman Jacob McBride fired a 139 to tie for eighth place with two other teams, coming in as the Wolfpack’s top scorer of day one. Senior Logan Harrell and junior Andrew Decker tied for 28th at 145, while sophomore Wilson Day came in at 152. Junior Christian Hawley shot a 167 to cap group two’s outing.
“When you’re trying to play 36 holes, you can’t set the course up very differently,” Sykes said. “This being our home course, it should have been something we could take advantage of.”
The overall leader after day one was Carter Jenkins of UNC-Greensboro, who shot a 16-under par at 128. The Spartans lead the team competition with 22-under at 554. East Tennessee State is second at 19-under, while East Carolina is third ahead of the Wolfpack’s first group. Temple, UNC-Wilmington, Rutgers, Campbell, Idaho and the Pack’s second group round out the top 10.
“It wasn’t that we came out and didn’t play very good golf,” Sykes said. “A few teams came out and shot better than us.”
The final 18 holes of the tournament will be played tomorrow beginning at 8 a.m.
“Hopefully it’s our day,” Sykes said. “We’ll go play as well as we can and see what happens.
