The Kent State men’s golf team wrapped up the Bank of Tennessee tournament this weekend, finishing tied for sixth place at 3-over-par. The Flashes head back home to begin preparation for the U.S. Collegiate, which starts on Oct.16. 

First Round

“I’m happy with the first round. We’re right there and in a good position,” said head coach Herb Page. “Everybody played pretty good. Chase (Johnson) had a real good round going. It was a good team effort.”

Sophomore Chase Johnson led the way for the Flashes, finishing with a 2-under 70 score. He is tied for fourth place after the first round of play.

“He got off to a really good start. He had a 4-under and a chance to go to five,” Page said. “He’s just playing some really good golf right now.”

Freshman Gisli Sveinbergsson ended his first round with a 1-over 73 score and is tied for 30th place. Junior Tyler McHugh and sophomore Spencer Dobbs both ended with a 2-over 74 score. Both finished tied for thirty-eighth place.

Sophomore Ian Holt finished his first round with a four-over 76 score and is tied for 55th place to wrap out the team players.

Freshman Bjarki Petursson, playing as an individual in the tournament, finished his first round tied along side Sveinbergsson with a final 1-over-73 score tied for 28th place.

“They played steady all day,” Page said. “It was a very solid round of golf.”

Second Round

The Flashes backed up a steady first round with an even better second round at the tournament. The team ended its second round in second place at six-under-par, four strokes behind leader Penn State.

“Well, we didn’t start out well today but there were some low winds.  It was kind of a misty day but had almost no wind,” Page said. “And if you look at the scores, you’ll see some low ones, but it was a good round of golf.”

Johnson followed up his 2-under 70 performance in the first round with a three-under 69 score in the second round. He ended tied at third place with a two-round total score of five-under-par.

“He’s really making a lot of birdies,” Page said. “His length off the tee helps as well, and he’s just playing very well; a continuation of last week.”

McHugh, Dobbs and Holt all shot a 2-under 70 score in the second round.

McHugh and Dobbs are tied for twentieth place with a two-round total score of even par. Holt ended with a two-round total score of 2-over-par, tied for thirty-second place.

Sveinbergsson ended his second round with a five-over 77 performance.  He is tied for fifty-fifth place at six-over-par. Petursson shot a one-under 71 round to join Dobbs and McHugh at a tie for twentieth place.

“The key for tomorrow is that all five guys get into the game, start well and bring a good finish,” Page said. “It will probably come down to the last three or four holes. And, if we can put ourselves in a good position for those last three or four holes, I think we will be in contention.”

Following the the tie for second after the second round of play, the Flashes lost their steady lead and ended tournament just out of the top five. 

Third Round

The team shot a nine-over-par score in the third round of the tournament.  

“(I feel) just very disappointed. It turned out to be just an average weekend. With nine holes to go we were in second place and we shot 11-over-par the last nine holes and just blew the whole weekend,” Page said. “There’s no excuses, its very, very disappointing.”

Johnson continued his good play and finished out the tournament shooting even par 72 and ended tied for fourth place at five-under-par. 

“He had the lead with four holes to go and made three bogies,” Page said. “What can I say? We just have to finish it off.”

Petursson ended his third round with a four-under 68 performance. He ended his tournament tied for twelfth place with a total score of three-under-par. 

“He was perfect today. He just got better everyday,” Page said. “Where as everybody else just got worse.”

Dobbs finished the third round with a 3-over 75 score to end the tournament tied for thirty-second place at three-over-par. 

Holt and McHugh both ended the tournament tied for forty-second place with a total score of six-over-par. Holt ended his third round with a 4-over 76 score and McHugh ended with a six-over 78 score. 

Sveinbergsson picked up his play from the second round with a two-over 74-score at the end of the third round. He ended the tournament in 56th place at eight-over-par. 

“Well we are going to start with a change in the starting five. We’ll take Tyler McHugh out of the starting five and Bjarki (Petursson) will go back in,” Page said. “It’s kind of a short turnaround so, I think we’ll take a couple days off to let them get caught up in school and refresh themselves.”

Chris Yamnitsky is a sports reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].