Sept. 29, 2009
Richmond, Va. - The Penn State men's golf team wrapped up at the VCU Shootout tying for fourth place with Iowa and Virginia Tech. The Nittany Lions finished at 17-over par with a three-round card of 300-288-293 (881). The Lions were just nine strokes back from first place team, N. Car. Wilmington, who finished at eight-over par (872).
"Considering how we started so poorly in rounds one and two, the team battled back from the tail end of the field to a very respectable fourth place finish," said head coach Greg Nye. "The guys showed great heart."
Seniors T.J. Howe (Osceola, Pa.) and Kevin Foley (Somerville, N.J.) led the way for the Nittany Lions, both finishing in top 10 positions. Howe carded his Nittany Lion career all-time low score of 68 in the second round and finished tied for fourth, 73-68-76 (217). Howe was seven shots shy of tournament champion Corey Nagy of Charlotte, who shot a three-round total of 210. Foley finished tied for 10th at two-over par, 74-72-72 (218). This marks Foley's 11th top-10 finish of his Lion Career.
"T.J. gave a huge lift yesterday afternoon going four-under," said Nye. "He recognized we needed to dig our heels in and fight our way back into contention and that leadership is important when things are not going our way."
Bridgeville native, Jim Markovitz (Bridgeville, Pa.) finished tied for 24th with a total of 221. Markovitz had his best round today, shooting two-under par (70) and jumping 13 places on the leaderboard. Junior Tommy McDonagh (Wilton, Conn.) finished at nine-over par (225) with rounds of 77-73-75. Junior Jason Cohan (Wayne, Pa.) shot his best round of the tournament today, 77, to wrap up his total at 80-79-77 (236).
The Nittany Lions will resume action on Oct. 10-12 in Macon, Ga., at the Brickyard Intercollegiate. More information will be available at GoPSUSports.com.
"Going into the Brickyard in Georgia, against an excellent field, we will need more depth. With Archambalt out with an injury I am going to need a player to step in to our five position," said Nye, "I am going to need them to give us stronger and better scoring support than we have seen to date,"