April 21, 2013 at 8:36 PM
The Penn State men's golf team was finally at home this weekend, hosting the Rutherford Intercollegiate at the Blue Course this weekend.
After finishing in second place after the first two rounds on Saturday, the Nittany Lions ended up tying for third with Minnesota on Sunday with a score of 896. The winner, Binghamton finished with a score of 890.
Leading the Lions was sophomore Xander McDonald-Smith who shot an overall 220, good for third place.
Coach Greg Nye said he was proud of McDonald-Smith's play and was excited to see him play like he did.
"He played pretty darn well last week and this week he played really well, so super pleased with him," Nye said.
Nye also noted that the team played in bad conditions and that the weather didn't hamper McDonald-Smith at all.
"He plays with a big heart and he can play in bad conditions because he's got a big heart, so I'm just not surprised," Nye said.
Anthony DeGol and Chris Houston joined McDonald-Smith in the top 10, tying for seventh and 10th respectively.
Jay Woodward rounded out the team with a score of 232 overall.
The team was hampered by injury in the second round, when Jens Talbert left the match, forcing the team to compete with just four players.
"Only regrets you have are with Talbert getting blown out in the second round with an injury and playing four legged and that's a difficult thing to do," Nye said.
The biggest performance of the weekend was from freshman J.D. Dornes who is on the men's golf team, but did not qualify for the match. Dornes competed as an individual and finished in second place after a one hole playoff with Xavier's Tanapol Vattanpisit.
Next weekend the Lions will head to French Lick, Ind., for the Big Ten Championship.
By Connor Whooley
September 17, 2012 at 8:56 PM
After the first two rounds of the Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational were played Monday, the Penn State men's golf team finds itself in a tie for seventh place with another Big Ten school, Michigan.
The Nittany Lions finished the first round of the day with a 296 (+12), which put them in seventh place in the 10-team field. Although they improved their second round score by four strokes, the overall 588 (+20) the Lions did not move them up the team leader board after the second round ended.
Two strokes behind the Lions is Michigan State, the other Big Ten school nearby in the standings. The fourth and final team from the conference, Northwestern, is well ahead of the other three -- the Wildcats are in second place at 575 (285-290).
Kent State (581) and Liberty (583) are just ahead of the Lions. Both schools have been golfing slightly better than Penn State, but a solid day can move the Lions into the tournament's top half.
Senior Jay Woodward and sophomore Jens Talbert lead the Lions in 18th place with a pair of 146s (+4). Woodward led the team in the first round with a 72, while freshman Geoff Vartelas led the team's second round of scoring with his own 72. Vartelas, at 150 (+8), is tied for 36th-place. He is one stroke behind senior Anthony DeGol (tied for 32nd place) and one stroke ahead of sophomore Xander McDonald-Smith (tied for 41st place), who rounds out the team's scoring.
North Texas is currently the tournament's leader. The team has been in first place after each round, shooting consecutive 284s.
After shooting a 66 (-5) to begin his tournament, Kent State's Kevin Miller slipped into a tie for third place with a 75 (+4) in the second round. The tournament's current leader is Rodolfo Cazaubon of North Texas, whose 138 (-4) is one stroke better than South Florida's Chase Koepka.
The final round of the event will be played Tuesday, and live scoring can be followed athttp://www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/player/static/player3810.html. Coverage at the end of the tournament will be available in Wednesday's edition of The Daily Collegian.
September 9, 2012 at 9:20 PM
Things got even worse for Penn State's men's golf team following a poor opening-round showing at the Gopher Invitational Sunday.
Sophomore Jens Talbert and freshman Chris Houston did not golf in the day's second round for undisclosed reasons. This gave the short-handed Nittany Lions a DNF on the team leaderboard, taking them out of the conversation for a team victory.
Even if Talbert and Houston did compete in the second round, though, chances are the team would not have finished Sunday too high on the leaderboard anyway. A team score of 310 (+22) left the Lions in 13th place out of the 15-team field, giving them plenty of work to do to catch up to California, which shot a round-leading 274 (-14).
However, it was not all bad news for the Lions. The three golfers on the team that did compete in the second round all improved their scores--senior Anthony DeGol by six strokes, senior Jay Woodward by one stroke, and freshman Geoff Vartelas by three strokes.
Vartelas, who is making his debut with the Lions at the tournament, led the team in each round and currently has an overall score of 147 (+3). Houston, also in his first tournament as a Lion, tied Talbert for third on the team after the first round with a 79 (+7). Both freshmen are already proving they can add even more young talent to team over the course of the season.
California is leading all teams heading into Monday's final round. With an overall score of 564 (-12), the Golden Bears are the only team shooting under par. SMU is the closest competitor, 14 strokes behind with a 578 (+2).
It comes as no surprise that the top of the individual leaderboard is filled by Golden Bears, too. Max Homa leads everyone after shooting a total of 137 (-7). Brandon Hagy, also of California, and Victor Perez, of New Mexico, are tied for second place with two 141s (-4).
Live scoring of Monday's final round can be followed at http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/index.cfm?tournament_id=3644. End-of-tournament coverage can be found inside The Daily Collegian later this week.
October 16, 2011 at 11:21 PM
The struggles for the Nittany Lion golfers continued on Sunday in Illinois, as they are dead last through almost two rounds of play in the seventeen-team field at the Windon Memorial tournament.
The tournament is currently suspended in the second round due to darkness, but the golfers might have welcomed the delay. The aggregate team score sits at a lofty 31-over-par, a far cry from the -13 that tournament leader No. 8 Arkansas has posted.
Senior Tommy McDonagh is the only Nittany Lion helping the team’s attempts to win. He has shot an even par through his first (almost) two rounds of play. Meanwhile, sophomore Shane Stewart (+9), freshman Xander McDonald-Smith (+10), junior Jay Woodward (+13), and senior Nick Archambault (+15) have not came through.
During the first round, rain suspended the tournament for over an hour. Because of the conditions, the golfers will pick up where they left off on Monday and then play the third and final round.
The Windon Memorial, hosted by Northwestern, presents Penn State’s best opportunity of the first half of their season to make a jump in the rankings. Not only does the Evanston Golf Club course on which the tournament is being played have a level of relative easiness, but many highly ranked teams like Arkansas and No. 22 UCLA are in the event.
Unfortunately, the golfers could not capitalize early and find themselves in a hole that is impossible to dig out of to reach that elusive first victory.
Check Tuesday's Daily Collegian for a full recap of the tournament with player reaction.
October 3, 2011 at 8:55 PM
After the first two rounds of play today in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate in Raleigh, N.C., the Penn State golfers are struggling in fourteenth place of the sixteen teams competing.
The Nittany Lions’ overall score is 599, good for 31-over-par. At 28 strokes behind tournament leader No. 39 Memphis, a comeback is nearly impossible for the Lions with only one round of holes being played tomorrow.
The best player thus far for the Lions has been senior Tommy McDonagh at +5. He stands tied for 26th among the individual golfers playing.
After McDonagh, the rest of the team has had struggles: sophomore Shane Stewart (+8), juniors Ernie Marin (+10) and Anthony DeGol (+14) and freshman Xander McDonald-Smith (+15) are all in the bottom half of the leaderboard.
The team had much higher expectations than this, as McDonagh and DeGol said yesterday that they expected to win. McDonagh said that the long length of the Loonie Poole Course suited the team well because they’re good hitters off the tee.
On Tuesday, the team will play the final round of the tournament.
September 26, 2011 at 1:22 PM
The Inverness Intercollegiate, originally scheduled to be a two-day tournament with 36 holes played today and 18 tomorrow, underwent some changes due to the heavy rain in Toledo, Ohio, that has rendered the Inverness Club course unplayable.
Now, all Monday play has been canceled, and the tournament will simply consist of 18 holes on Tuesday morning, according to golfstat.com.
Yesterday, the team had a good practice round and was prepared for the inclement weather, said junior Anthony Degol.
Competing in the tournament for Penn State will be senior Tommy McDonagh, juniors Degol and Ernie Marin, sophomore Shane Stewart, and freshman Xander McDonald-Smith.
McDonagh said the course was flooded and it was pouring in Toledo this morning.
