Coming into the final round of the Royal Oaks Invitational in Dallas, the No. 14 Kent State men’s golf team was struggling. The team was sitting in ninth place at -1 after shooting rounds of 283 and 284 — a far cry from leader Baylor, who shot a -22. 

But all that changed in the final round, as the Flashes battled strong winds to shoot a 282 in the final round, the second-lowest score. That score allowed them to leapfrog Michigan, Pepperdine, UTSA, New Mexico and Liberty. 

Bjarki Petursson led the Flashes with a 211 total, good for 12th overall. Petursson, Chase Johnson and Gisli Sveinbergsson all shot an even 71 in the final round. Ian Holt and Johnson finished tied for 17th, while Sveinbergsson finished tied for 39th. 

The biggest turnaround for the Flashes came off the clubs of Chris Doody. Doody shot a 79 and 78 in the first two rounds but responded by shooting an exceptional 69 in the final round, the second lowest score of the day.

No. 7 Baylor’s Cooper Dossey finished in first place at -11, while his team finished in first place at -25, 19 strokes above second place No. 17 Arkansas. 

The Flashes will play their final tournament of the fall Nov. 3 and 4 at the Ka’anapali Classic in Hawaii. They will return in the spring at the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette, Louisiana Feb. 26 and 27.

Henry Palattella is the sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].