Darkness deters first-day finish at Spring Kickoff with No. 24 Eagles in 10th
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – With the first two rounds of the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate mostly in the books aside from one team still needing to finish due to darkness, No. 24 Carson-Newman sits at 10th with a 36-over outing on Monday at the St. John’s Golf Club.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – With the first two rounds of the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate mostly in the books aside from one team still needing to finish due to darkness, No. 24 Carson-Newman sits at 10th with a 36-over outing on Monday at the St. John's Golf Club.
Jake Mynatt (Knoxville, Tenn.) was a part of that group, needing to play just one more hole before continuing onto Tuesday's third round.
The Eagles were tied for fourth by the end of the first round with a 302 but slipped down with a 306 in the afternoon for a 608. They head to Tuesday staring at a 10-shot deficit from the lead, barring Mynatt's group's finish.
Tom Forster (Oundle, England) paces the Eagles heading into the final round in a tie for seventh, sitting just seven shots out of first. He was the only Eagle to turn in a round that was even or better on Monday, going even in the second round.
"Tom played well, but everyone else played terribly," coach Randy Wylie said. "I need to, obviously, prepare them better. We will try to bounce back tomorrow."
Forster collected a two-over 74 in the morning with a trio of birdies but tacked on five bogeys. The afternoon brought more of a balanced round for the senior on two birdies and bogeys for an even 72. He is tied for the best par-4 scoring average with a one-under 3.95.
Mynatt (Knoxville, Tenn.) currently sits as the next closest Eagle on the leaderboard, holding a share of 38th with a 10-over 150 through 35 holes. He split two-over showings in both halves of the course in the first round, sitting at four-over before heading into the turn of the day with just a single birdie at that point. He will close out his second round first thing in the morning before starting up third round action. Heading into the 11th hole, he is six-over.
Both Fergus Robinson (Towcester, England) and Alex Hodge (Knoxville, Tenn.) turned in rounds of 76 and 80 on Monday, landing them in a tie for 52nd with a 12-over 156.
Robinson went four-over in the morning on a pair of birdies, bogeys and double bogeys. He opened his second round with an eagle on the par-5 12th hole, the only eagle C-N saw on the day and one of three seen throughout both of the opening rounds. He went for birdie on two of his next three holes but closed the round at eight-over.
Hodge was four-over through his first nine holes of the day and stayed there with an additional pair of bogeys and birdies in the back nine to finish his morning. Through the final 18, the junior added four strokes onto his first-round score by shooting for bogey on nine holes. He went for par on eight of the remaining holes while birdieing the par-3 fifth hole.
Fintan McKenna (Aberdeen, Scotland) went 27-over through the first 36 holes, tying him for 91st at 171. The senior was the only Eagles to not shoot for birdie in the first round. His scorecard in the morning was clustered with nine bogeys and three double bogeys, leaving him at 15-over heading into the afternoon. McKenna was three-shots better in the second round with an 84. He found a birdie in the afternoon but pinned down eight bogeys, five of those coming exclusively on par-4s.
No. 7/11 Lincoln Memorial leads the field with a 22-over 598. No. 1/2 Barry is one shot behind in second and Wingate is third with one player still needing to finish the second round, currently holding a 596 at 24-over.
North Greenville's Evans Lewis leads the field at one-under through 35 holes with a 139. Anderson's Jake Miller trails him after completing both rounds with a 144 while a four-way tie for third tracks him.
The tournament comes to a close on Tuesday with one final round of play once the last group from Monday wraps up. Live scoring will once again flood the BirdieFire page before a recap makes its way to cneagles.com concluding the event.
