Men's Golf at Steelwood Collegiate Invitational - Final Results.

[knightfan7]

The tourney is hosted by South Alabama, featuring 2 teams from the B1G (RU and Indiana), 2 from the SEC (Alabama and Kentucky), and 2 from the B12 (Kansas St and WVU) Otherteams scheduled to compete include Memphis, Rice, UAB, and Furman. The most recent rankings from a couple weeks ago had Alabama #11. Indiana was #47 with RU #72. There are 14 teams that list the tourney on their schedule but might be more.

Now on to the fun part.....

Shocking as it may be to believe, the NCAA has screwed the pooch when it comes to college golf. Back during the summer they decided to part ways with long time official scorer, Golfstat, in favor of Spikemark. Spikemark made all these grand promises about enhanced features that would give better service to not only the NCAA, but schools and players. Needless to say after some stops and starts they completely failed. There system was never able to run without crashing. The NCAA has now brought in a company called Clippd to fix the system. Many wonder why the ever left Golfstat and ask why they can't be brought back. Unfortunately, Golfstat had to lay off many employees after losing the contract, making them unable to handle the load at this time properly.

Why does it matter? The NCAA used Golfstat's data and rankings to select At-Large teams and seedings for the NCAA Men's and Women's Championship along with a select number of individual players for the Individual championship. How do they do that if the situation isn't fixed?

This has also affected the Sagarin Rankings because I believe he uses the same data with a slightly different formula for his team and individual rankings

 

[knightfan7]

Going to the U of Alabama site I find that Furman isn't competing, instead Va Tech is in the field.

The site lead me to Rutgers will go with the 5 who have played the most the Fall in Xavier Marcoux, Luke Wells, Rhett Sellers, Weston Jones, and Martin Leon. For the 1st 2 Rounds tomorrow RU will be paired with WVU and UAB.

After Bama the next highest ranked team in the field, when there were rankings, is #27 Tenn - Chattanooga.

Golfstat, although they lost the NCAA contract, has been hired to be the official scorer for this tourney.

 

[knightfan7]

Rutgers really put itself behind the 8 Ball with a first round 302 (+14) and last place in the 14 team field. Xavier Marcoux shot an Even Par 72. He was followed by Rhett Sellers 73. Luke Wells shot a wild 75 with 2 Eagles and 2 Double Bogeys. Martin Leone shot 80 and Weston Jones 83.

In the afternoon round things went a lot better with a team 289 (+1), climbing up to 8th Place. The 289 was the 4th best afternoon round. It was Rhett Sellers turn to ride the rollercoaster. Despite Doubles on 2 of his 1st 4 holes, he came back to shoot a 3 Under 69 by scoring Birdies on 5 of his last 7 holes including 4 in his last 4 holes. His 2nd round scorecard included 9 Birdies, 5 Pars, 2 Bogeys, and 2 Double Bogeys. He is T8 individually. Luke Wells (T38) shot Even Par 72, Xavier Marcoux (T20) and Martin Leon (T57) shot 74, and Weston Jones (75) an 81.

Top 5

1. Alabama........................-8
2. Kentucky.......................-5
3. Tenn - Chattanooga.....-2
4. Memphis.......................+5
T5. Va Tech.......................+12
T5. Kansas State..............+12

In tomorrow's final, 8th place RU (+15) will be paired with 7th place Kennesaw State (+13) and 9th Place Indiana (+16).

 

[knightfan7]

Rutgers had their best round of the tourney in today's final round. Their 4 Under 284 tied for 4th best just as their 2nd round yesterday. The 4 Under allowed them to finish 7th in the 14 team field with scores of 302-289-284. The 1st round was just too much to overcome.

Rutgers was led by Xavier Marcoux's 4 Under 68. His 3 round total of 214 (-2) gave him a 9th place finish individually. He was followed by Weston Jones, who after 2 rough rounds, shot -1. They were followed by Martin Leon with an Even Par 72. Rhett Sellers +1 allowed him finish -1 , giving Rutgers their 2nd Top 10 finish individually. Luke Wells shot 76.

A couple stats....

Rutgers led the field with 5 Eagles over the 3 rounds.

Rhett Sellers tied for 1st with 17 Birdies.

Final Top 7

1. Alabama..........................-11
2. Tenn-Chattanooga........-3
3. Memphis.........................+2
4. Kentucky.........................+3
5. Va Tech............................+7
6. Kansas State..................+8
7. RUTGERS.........................+11

Indiana, the other B1G entrant, finished 10th (+22). Indiana has been ranked, when there were rankings, in the 40's.

This ends RU's Fall Season. RU isn't competing in the B1G Match Play this time around as not all teams play every year so their next tournament with be The Palmas Del Mar Collegiate in Puerto Rico Feb 11-13. The team is somewhere around the middle of the B1G. If they want a chance of making the NCAA's, there's work needing to be done.