No. 15/15 Eagles improve in second round to tie for 11th at NCAA South/Southeast Regional
HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – A 12-shot improvement that saw three Eagles make improvements to their scores from the first to second rounds helped No. 15/15 Carson-Newman move up one spot into a tie for 11th-place on Friday at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional.
HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – A 12-shot improvement that saw three Eagles make improvements to their scores from the first to second rounds helped No. 15/15 Carson-Newman move up one spot into a tie for 11th-place on Friday at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional.
The Eagles were eight-over on the day with a 296, moving their two-round total to a 28-over 604. They are now the sixth-best par-4 scoring team with a 4.27 average and are tied for the fourth-most birdies in the field at 25.
Carson-Newman is currently five-shots back of making the NCAA Finals field with the top seven teams at the regional advancing. Limestone, the seventh-place team by the end of the day, is 23-over through two rounds.
"We need to be closers," coach Randy Wylie said. "We've made up more than five shots before many times. Today was a solid round, but we need to show a lot of smart strategy and courage tomorrow."
Jackson Tyler (Wilmington, N.C.) leads the team for a second straight day despite shooting one-shot higher in the second round with a three-over 75, pushing him into a tie for 24th. The sophomore was two over through the front nine on a pair of birdies before opening up the back nine with a double-bogey on the par-5 10th. He made up some ground with back-to-back birdies but a bogey on the 18th moved his two-round total to 149.
Co-leading the Orange and Blue with Tyler is Jake Mynatt (Knoxville, Tenn.), also at five-over for the event. The freshman shaved three shots off of his opening round score of 76. He carded a birdie on his first hole of the day but a bogey on the seventh left him at even heading into the turn. A birdie bookended by bogeys left him at one-over for the day.
Both Mynatt and Tyler are tied for fifth in the field for par-4 scoring with a 4.05 clip.
The most substantial jump of the day came from Tom Forster (Northamptonshire, England) who moved 29 spots up the leaderboard on Friday to sit in a tie for 52nd with a nine-over total of 153. The junior was seven-shots better in the round compared to where he entered the clubhouse the previous day. He was on par for the first five holes before a birdie followed by a triple-bogey moved him to two-over in the turn. He made up for the miscue with a bogey and two birdies to close the round at one-over.
Will Collins (Knoxville, Tenn.) also made a major move in the second round by shooting six-shots lower than his Thursday score to move up into a tie for 71st with a 75. A double-bogey on the par-4 third hole followed by a bogey gave him a three-over score heading into the back nine. The freshman shot for birdie on four of his first six holes in the back half, the other two being a bogey and double bogey. He closed the day with a bogey, moving his total through 36 holes to a 12-over 156.
Sharing that 71st spot with Collins is Jake Headrick (Maryville, Tenn.), who faced the largest fall among C-N on Friday by moving down 12 spots. He carded four bogeys and a birdie in the front nine to go three-over heading to the latter part of his day. He brought in two more birdies that were overshadowed by three bogeys and a double-bogey to go six-over for a second-straight day with a 78.
No. 3/3 West Florida and No. 2/2 Lynn are tied at the top of the leaderboard at nine-over with both teams going nine-over on the day to hold a 585 total. No. 10/10 Lincoln Memorial moved into the third after a 17-over round to sit at 14-over through 36 holes.
Georgia Southwestern's Vincent Norrman leads the field with a four-under total of 140 after carding a six-under round. Nova Southeastern's Juan Jose Guerra and LMU's Dan Bradbury are tied for second at three-under.
The regional comes to an end on Saturday with one final round of play. Carson-Newman will take to the links beginning at 12:50 p.m. Fans can follow live scoring throughout the day via Golfstat.
