Men's College Golf | Notes: UCF runs away at Rio Pinar

Notes: UCF runs away at Rio Pinar

SLIDESHOWS: Final round • Opening rounds (Photos by Tracy Wilcox)

By RAY MCCARTHY
Assistant Editor

ORLANDO, Fla. – The University of Central Florida men’s golf team didn’t particularly enjoy listening to naysayers rule them out after the departure of Jhared Hack.

Hack, the Knights’ No. 1 player and the 2007 Western Amateur champion, left UCF to turn pro after the fall semester.

The Knights responded by leaving the UCF-Rio Pinar Invitational Feb. 26 with a first-place trophy.

UCF won by 12 shots over runner-up Wichita State, finishing with an 18-under 846 total that included two second-round 64s from sophomore Mike Stern and junior Greg Forest.

Stern and Forest finished 11 under for the tournament, and were co-medalists.

“We have a lot of talent on this team,” said Stern, who made six birdies and an eagle for his 8-under 64 and at one point went birdie-eagle-birdie. “Jhared was a good player, but he didn’t make this team. We’re all working hard, and we’ll be there in the postseason.”

Stern led the Knights’ with a final-round 69 and Forest closed with a 1-under 71, including two up-and-down par saves on the last two holes.

“I really trusted myself this week, a lot more than I have,” Forest said. “I definitely have improved.”

The win serves as a means of validation for the Knights, who struggled to a tie for 13th at the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational last week. UCF climbed to No. 27 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings with five top-10 finishes during the fall, including a seventh-place finish at the Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational in October that saw them tied for the first-round lead. Forest’s 4-under 68 was also tied for the individual lead.

According to junior Preston Brown, the team has been bombarded with questions about their ability to perform without Hack, and the frustraton has mounted.

“We have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” said Brown, who finished tied for 21st at 1-over 217. “Last week, (head coach UCF Nick Clinard) was saying that no one is giving you guys a shot at winning. They’re writing you off as one of those teams that’s going to struggle with the .500 rule.”

Clinard sees the victory as an indication of what his team can accomplish this spring.

“We’re a good team,” Clinard said. “Obviously losing one of our best players hurt, but we have a great group of guys now, and we challenged them to respond.

“This team has a good chance to be a top-15 team in the country, and one of our goals is to go to nationals.”

The Knights will look to reaffirm their talent March 23 when they travel to South Carolina for the Hootie at Bulls Bay.

• • •

Tennessee-Chattanooga head coach Mark Guhne isn’t accustomed to the success his program is having. So Puggy Blackmon, the renowned former coach of Georgia Tech men’s golf and current director of golf at South Carolina, sat Guhne down in a cart last year and drove around for an hour, sharing his thoughts on how success should be handled.

“He saw me running around all nervous,” Guhne said. “He said, ‘They’re going to be as nervous as you are. They’re going to take on your personality.’ That’s one thing I really try to control.”

After a successful fall in which the Mocs topped a strong field at the Coca-Cola Duke Classic, finished second at the Scenic City Invitational and tied for third at the VCU Shootout, Guhne admitted his squad feels some pressure in upholding its No. 14 ranking in the Golfweek/Sagarin College rankings.

According to Guhne, this pressure may have led to Chattanooga’s 11th-place finish at Rio Pinar, a tournament the Mocs won last year.

“Last year, our guys played with a chip on their shoulder, and even last semester, that chip maybe started going away a little bit,” Guhne said. “We may have started thinking, ‘OK, maybe we are somebody.’ I don’t think it matters who you are. You have to prove yourself every week.”

Sophomore Derek Rende led the Mocs at Rio Pinar with a tie for 37th at 4-over 220. He opened with a 3-under 69 but faded with rounds of 74 and 77. Chattanooga’s final-round scoring average was 74.8.

“I won’t have to push these kids this week,” Guhne said. “They’ll beat me to practice. They’ll bounce back. They’ll figure out what they have to do to come back and play the way they know they can.”

Chattanogga tees it up next March 14 at the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation.

• • •

Snow has been a recurring theme for midwestern schools this winter, but Wichita State managed a second-place finish at Rio Pinar despite not playing a full round on home soil in months.

The Shockers finished fourth in the UTSA Roadrunner Classic last week and managed to squeeze in a practice round for Rio Pinar Saturday.

Chipping into nets and putting on an indoor green had been the extent of their short-game fine-tuning the past few months.

“It’s part of the deal,” said Wichita State head coach Grier Jones. “They live here. We live there.”

Whichita State is in the process of building an indoor practice facility to accomodate the team during winter months, but Jones said he feels his team should be prepared to play every week with or without that luxury.

“I expect us to play hard every week,” Jones said. “We did alright this week. Everybody kept it reasonable.”

The Shockers, ranked 35th in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, were led by senior Ryan Spears, who finished tied for sixth with a 5-under 211 total.

Iowa State has dealt with the same snowy conditions, but even with a good indoor practice facility, head coach Jay Horton feels there is no substitute for playing a 54-hole tournament in two days.

“We hit balls year-round, but we don’t get to putt on grass, or chip off of grass, and there’s a lot to be said about that,” Horton said. “You can’t have high, high expectations, but I think we did pretty good for our first time out.”

The Cyclones finished seventh with a 6-over 870 total.

• • •

Ray McCarthy is a Golfweek assistant editor. To reach him e-mail rmccarthy@golfweek.com.

Scores with relation to par from the final round of the UCF-Rio Pinar Intercollegiate, played Feb. 26 at the par-72, 7,003-yard Rio Pinar Country Club in Orlando, Fla. (y-played as individual):

TEAMS
1. UCF	287-274-285--846		-18
2. Wichita State	284-283-291--858		-6
3. Louisville	288-285-286--859		-5
4. Mississippi	280-290-292--862		-2
5. North Florida	295-289-283--867	+	3
6. UT-Arlington	290-288-290--868	+	4
7. Iowa State	292-282-296--870	+	6
8. Southern Mississippi	291-292-288--871	+	7
9. Ohio State	288-289-297--874	+	10
10. Kentucky	293-286-296--875	+	11
11. Tenn.-Chattanooga	291-289-297--877	+	13
11. Memphis	295-283-299--877	+	13
13. Tulsa	288-298-293--879	+	15
14. South Alabama	297-293-295--885	+	21
15. Old Dominion	295-293-303--891	+	27
16. Mercer	298-292-302--892	+	28
17. So. Florida	299-304-300--903	+	39
18. Arkansas State	315-296-295--906	+	42

INDIVIDUALS
1. Greg Forest, UCF	70-64-71--205		-11
1. Mike Stern, UCF	72-64-69--205		-11
3. Ian Rochester, Memphis	69-68-72--209		-7
4. Derek Fathauer, Louisville	70-70-70--210		-6
4. Johnny Caldwell, So Alabama	69-69-72--210		-6
6. Ryan Spears, Wichita St	69-71-71--211		-5
7. Jesse Speirs, Ole Miss	74-66-72--212		-4
8. Bill Jones III, Mercer U.	71-70-72--213		-3
8. Paul Apyan, So. Miss.	71-68-74--213		-3
8. Cedric Bertin, Iowa State	71-69-73--213		-3
8. Wes Carter, So. Miss.	70-73-70--213		-3
12. Bobby MassavUTA	73-71-70--214		-2
12. Dustin Garza, Wichita St	72-71-71--214		-2
12. Jonathan Randolph, Ole Miss	65-75-74--214		-2
12. Chris Kennedy, N. Florida	75-72-67--214		-2
12. y-Kyle Cobb, UCF	71-71-72--214		-2
17. Michael O'Neal, N. Florida	70-73-72--215		-1
17. Kyle Coconis, Ohio State	71-72-72--215		-1
19. Rob Laird, Tulsa	71-75-70--216		E
19. Ben Herrera, Iowa State	73-70-73--216		E
21. Jeff Dennis, N. Florida	75-72-70--217	+	1
21. Brad Doster, Kentucky	75-72-70--217	+	1
21. Jason Elliott, USF-Bulls	73-75-69--217	+	1
21. Preston Brown, UCF	72-73-72--217	+	1
21. Connor McHenry, Wichita St	71-74-72--217	+	1
21. Lewis Kirton, Louisville	73-71-73--217	+	1
27. Chris Baker, Iowa State	76-71-71--218	+	2
27. Daryl Fathauer, Louisville	74-72-72--218	+	2
27. Zack Reeves, UTA	73-73-72--218	+	2
27. Adam Rainaud, Louisville	71-74-73--218	+	2
27. Zach Fischer, UTA	75-72-71--218	+	2
27. Brad Smith, Ohio State	72-71-75--218	+	2
27. Cale Barr, Kentucky	73-69-76--218	+	2
34. David Johnson, UCF	73-73-73--219	+	3
34. Adam Hadwin, Louisville	76-72-71--219	+	3
34. Brandon Bunn, Memphis	73-69-77--219	+	3
37. M.Etienne Bussieres, So Alabama	76-73-71--220	+	4
37. Brad Benjamin, Memphis	75-70-75--220	+	4
37. Andy Winings, Kentucky	72-71-77--220	+	4
37. Derek Rende, Chattanoog	69-74-77--220	+	4
37. Michael Van DeVenter, UTA	69-72-79--220	+	4
37. Bo Hoag, Ohio State	72-73-75--220	+	4
37. Fredrik Qvicker, Chattanoog	72-71-77--220	+	4
37. Kyle Ellis, Ole Miss	73-75-72--220	+	4
37. Ty Sanders, Wichita St	72-71-77--220	+	4
37. Tyler Sparks, So. Miss.	74-74-72--220	+	4
37. David Marino, Ole Miss	69-77-74--220	+	4
37. Ryan Brooks, Tulsa	72-73-75--220	+	4
37. Ben Rickett, Chattanoog	76-71-73--220	+	4
37. Jake Chominsky, Tulsa	72-75-73--220	+	4
51. Matt Watson, Old Domin.	79-70-72--221	+	5
51. Lloyd du Preez, Ark. St.	75-71-75--221	+	5
51. Brian Belden, Kentucky	73-74-74--221	+	5
54. Jonathan Hodge, Chattanooga	74-73-75--222	+	6
54. J.T. Clendenin, Chattanooga	76-74-72--222	+	6
56. Eric Onesi, Old Domin.	73-73-77--223	+	7
56. Joe Cermak, Iowa State	72-72-79--223	+	7
56. Ville Vaisanen, Tulsa	73-75-75--223	+	7
56. Robby Carl, USF-Bulls	72-76-75--223	+	7
56. Zachariah Potter, Wichita St	76-70-77--223	+	7
56. y-Jacob Davidson, N. Florida	72-76-75--223	+	7
62. Daniel Burns, So Alabama	76-74-74--224	+	8
62. y-Nuno Henriques, UCF	75-75-74--224	+	8
64. John Duthie, Ark. St.	79-77-69--225	+	9
64. Markus Rytkola, Mercer U.	73-75-77--225	+	9
64. Jeff Long, Old Domin.	72-78-75--225	+	9
64. Chris Mullhaupt, Ole Miss	73-74-78--225	+	9
64. John Murphy, Old Domin.	72-73-80--225	+	9
69. Patrick Simard, Ohio State	73-78-75--226	+	10
69. Tyler Hitchcock, USF-Bulls	76-74-76--226	+	10
69. Alex Park, So. Miss.	76-78-72--226	+	10
69. Jordan Gibb, N. Florida	75-77-74--226	+	10
73. Major Forbess, N. Florida	77-72-78--227	+	11
73. Giwon Suh, UCF	74-74-79--227	+	11
73. Ryan Blackburn, Mercer U.	78-73-76--227	+	11
76. Dan Rush, Ohio State	79-73-76--228	+	12
77. Nicolas Geyger, Tulsa	73-78-78--229	+	13
77. James Kania JR., Kentucky	79-74-76--229	+	13
77. Bryce Easton, UTA	77-75-77--229	+	13
80. Kyle Ramey, So. Miss.	77-77-76--230	+	14
80. Andrew An, Mercer U.	76-77-77--230	+	14
80. Tyler Thompson, Ark. St.	81-73-76--230	+	14
80. Kell Shenep, Ark. St.	80-75-75--230	+	14
80. Nathan Leary, Iowa State	78-73-79--230	+	14
85. Robbie Greenwell, Memphis	78-79-75--232	+	16
85. Greg Gowen, So Alabama	77-77-78--232	+	16
87. Seth Norman, Old Domin.	78-77-79--234	+	18
87. Stefan Erdedi, Memphis	80-76-78--234	+	18
89. Brock McKechnie, Mercer U.	80-74-83--237	+	21
90. Jack Hiluta, So Alabama	76-81-81--238	+	22
91. Raj Nahal, USF-Bulls	78-79-82--239	+	23
91. Jakob McKinley, USF-Bulls	79-80-80--239	+	23
93. Kyle Spencer, Ark. St.	83-86-77--246	+	30

Posted: 2/26/2008

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