Men's Golf At Hootie Intercollegiate - Rutgers Frosh Lead and Final Results.

[knightfan7]

The 15 team field, headed by #18 South Carolina, will play 3 Rounds over 3 days at the Mike Stranz design Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, SC. If you have played golf in the Myrtle Beach area, he designed Caledonia, True Blue, Heritage, and 1 of the Legends courses. Played em all with my favorite being Caledonia.

Rutgers comes in at #129, ranked ahead of only #193 Va Tech. Other teams who have put themselves in a good position to earn an invite to the 81 team Regionals May 12-14 are #29 Purdue, #48 New Mexico, #53 NC State, and #55 Charleston, There are also 5 teams, including #80 Iowa, who hope to maintain their position or move up.

At #16, Charleston's Kieron Van Wyk is the highest ranked player in the field.

Rutgers will send out Grad Noah Kumar, who finished 2nd at the recent Johnny-O. Joining him are Sr Weston Jones, Frosh Bennett Espenshade and Argyle Downes. Soph Derek Gutierrez returns to the lineup after a short absense as the 5th member. Kumar is the Knights highest ranked golfer. His 2nd Place last week and 2nd in the '24-'25 season jumped him from #434 to #240 in the national ( 2,043 qualifiers) rankings. The team hasn't finished in the top half of the field since the season opener back in September when they finished 5th out of 15.

First Round kicks off at 9am tomorrow.

 

[knightfan7]

Led by Frosh Argyle Downes 2 Under 70, Rutgers shot 3 Under in today's 1st Round. 1 stroke back at -1 was Frosh Bennett Espenshade. Grad Noah Kumar and Soph Derek Gutierrez shot Even Par 72 and Sr Weston Jones a 1 over, 72. Downes has 6 Birdies, 2 Bogeys and 1 Double. Espenshade had the a very consistent round with 2 Birdies and 1 Bogey. While not as good as 8 other teams, this is notable in that all 5 players had representative rounds at the same time. It hasn't happened much in '24-'25.

Rutgers stands tied for 9th with #48 New Mexico in the 15 team field.

Bulls Bay is a long course, measuring 7,282 yards.It features 2 Par 5's that measure over 600 yards and a 3rd measuring 590. It's Rating/Slope is 75.2/138 so if you're not on your game it could be a good walk spoiled.

Individually, Furman's Clark Akers shot a 7 Under 65. Elon's Matthew Doyle is 1 stroke back with 3 tied for 3rd at -5.

Top 5 Teams

1, #39 Purdue.................,,,......-13
2, #79 Coastal Carolina.......-11
3. #67 Furman..........................-9
T4. #77 Elon........................'......-7
T4 #53 North Carolina St

As in Round 1, Rutgers has the last tee times on 1 and 10, this time paired with golfers from Mizzou and Charleston.

 

[knightfan7]

On a day where 10 teams shot Par or better, Rutgers shot 4 Over, dropping 4 spots to 13th and 1 Over Par for the first 2 Rounds. The optimist says they're only 5 strokes out of 8th but they'd have to find a way to be more competitive.

Rutgers was led by Frosh Bennett Espenshade's 1 Eagle, 2 Birdie, 4 Bogey, Even Par 72. At T28, he's the only Knight in tjhe top half of the Leaderboard. Argyle Downes (75) and Noah Kumar (73) are among those T46 at +1, with Derek Gutierrez (73) and Weston Jones (73) T56 at +2.

In some kind of scoring screwup an Iowa golfer was shown to be 14 Under with 4 holes to go, looking squarely at a round in the 50's. It now appears that he was a WD. Seriously, it was pretty obvious by the time he was credited with a Hole In One on the 635yd Par 5 10th. I've learned after mistakes happened in the past to wait a while after the round in case of corrections.

Top 5 Teams

1. #39 Purdue...........'...........-22
T2. #67 Furman..................-16
T2. #55 Charleston....
4. #18 South Carolina......-12
5. #108 Missouri................-10

Individually, at 10 Under Purdue's Jensen Forrester has a 1 stroke lead over Furman's Clark Akers. Elon's Matt Doyle and So Carolins's Zach Adams are 3 back with Charleston's #16 ranked Kieron Van Wyk 4 back.

If tomorrow's final is set up as most, Rutgers will be playing in 3somes with 14th place Va Tech, and 15th place Western Carolina.

 

[knightfan7]

Although the team slipped a bit near the end, they shot their best team score of the three, a 6 Under 282 and 5 Under for the tourney. They finished 12th of 15 teams, ahead of Iowa, West Carolina and Va Tech.

Rutgers was led by the Freshman duo of Bennett Espenshade( 6 Birdies and 3 Bogeys) and Argyle Downes ( Eagle, 5 Birdies, 2 Bogeys, and a Double), shooting 3 Under 69's. Soph Derek Gutierrez and Sr Weston Jones shot Even Par 72 with Grad Noah Kumar a 75. The 2 Frosh were the only players to finish in the top half of the 83 player Leaderboard. Overall Espenshade finished T22, Downes T35, Gutierrez and Jones were T54, and Kumar T64.

Individually, Downes finished tied for 3rd Most Birdies with 15. He and Espenshade finished tied for 13th in Par 4 scoring (3.88). Unfortunately Downes also finished T6 in most Bogeys, tying teammate Gutierrez.

#18 South Carolina came into the Final in 4th, 10 strokes behind. Playing ahead of !st place #39 Purdue, they shot a team 18 Under, putting pressure on Purdue behind them. Purdue got to 8 Under needing one more Birdie to take the championship but didn't get it. The two tied for 1st.

Top 5 Teams

T1. #39 Purdue....................................-30
T1. #18 South Carolina.....................-30
3. #67 Furman.....................................-27
4. #55 Charleston..............................-26
T5. #48 New Mexico.........................-21
T5. #108 Missouri..............................-21

Similar to the team portion, the individual title was captured by someone,who had to pass several golfers. Charleston's #16 Kieron Van Wyk did just that, shooting a tourney best 8 Under 64, taking the title by two strokes with a 3 round total of 14 Under. So Carolina's #59 Frankie Harris finished 2nd with So Carolina's Zack Adams and Purdue's Jensen Forrester tied for 3rd.

Next Up is the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational Apr 5-6 in Augusta, Ga. This will be a strong top of the field with current #2 Texas, #8 UNC, #10 Illinois, and #20 Arizona among the 13 teams entered.