April 25, 2010
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State men's golf team trumped the 14-team Rutherford Intercollegiate field to take the 34th title marking their 21st first-place finish in the tournament history. The Nittany Lions, ranked No. 62 by Golfweek, shot rounds of 291-299-289 (879), finishing 20 shots ahead of second-place Towson (899). The Lions led the field for the entirety of the tournament in scoring as well as par-4 scoring (4.17 average, +28), par-5 scoring (4.84 average, -7), total pars, posting 162 total, and in total birdies, carding 34 in all.
"I am proud of the team winning the championship," said head coach Greg Nye. "I thought we did a pretty nice job with our overall focus throughout the tough weather and course set up. The Blue Course, with its added length, and firm and lightning-quick greens made for great championship conditions."
Kevin Foley, ranked No. 46 by Golfweek, beat Towson's John Duthie by eight strokes after firing round of 70-72-69 (211), winning the tournament with a 2-under-par. Foley was one of only two players to break 70 on the weekend, Temple's Andrew Mason shot a 69 in his final round as well. The first-place finish marks Foley's sixth Nittany Lion career title, good for most individual titles by a Penn State golfer, passing the five titles of former Lions Robert Rohanna and Dirk Ayers.
"It feels great," said Foley. "We definitely came into this weekend with the goal of winning the tournament and to come out on top in a dominating fashion. It is a good booster heading into Big Tens next week. Winning as a team and individually comes with a lot of positive things that we can feed off of in the next few days. We accomplished this goal and now we have to move on with our next goal, winning Big Tens."
"Kevin played great golf today," said Nye. "Super birdies at the third and eighth, then his eagle on ninth that put him well out in front of the field. This was Kevin's first Rutherford win and I know it was meaningful to him. He is one Penn Stater that belongs on the list of former champions."
Named after R.B. "Pop" Rutherford, Sr., the father of Penn State golf, the tournament was held at the 7,202-yard, par-71 Penn State Blue Course. With Saturday's second-round halted due to darkness the remaining holes were played Sunday morning followed by the third and final round in a shotgun format.
Penn State senior T.J. Howe (Osceola, Pa.) shot rounds of 74-74-73 (221) and tied for fourth place at 8-over-par. Junior Tommy McDonagh (East Norwalk, Conn.) carded a final-round 73 to tie for 6th place at 9-over-par. McDonagh posted a three-round 222 total with rounds of 70-79-73. Freshman Ernesto Marin (Miami, Fla.) shot a final-round 74, his lowest score of the weekend to post a 16-over-par, 229 total. Marin carded rounds of 80-75-74 tying for 27th. Rounding out the Nittany Lion lineup was senior Jim Markovitz (Bridgeville, Pa.) who carded rounds of 77-78-77 (232) at 19-over-par. His performance placed him tied for 37th.
The Nittany Lions also had five individual golfers competing in the tournament. Junior Brendan Borst (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and sophomore John Burke (Bay Village, Ohio) placed 13th with 13-over-par performances. Borst posted rounds of 77-75-74 (226) while Burke carded rounds of 78-75-73 (226). Freshman Matthew Porter (Cortland, N.Y.) shot rounds of 72-76-83 (231) to finish at 18-over-par in a tie for 32nd. Sophomore Nich Archambault (Q.C., Canada) tied for 42nd with a three-round total of 233. Archambault posted rounds of 82-77-74, 20-over-par. Jason Cohan (Wayne, Pa.) finished at 23-over-par with rounds of 84-75-77 (236). Rounding out for the Penn State individual participants was sophomore Tanner Smith (Sea Island, Ga.) with rounds of 81-84-83 (248), 35-over-par.
The Nittany Lions will have two days of practice before heading out to the 2010 Big Ten men's golf championships on Wednesday.
"We don't have a lot of time to prepare, just a couple of days before we leave," said Foley. "All we have to do is mentally prepare in these next two days of practice. The competition is going to be great, but if we play better and play smarter than we can beat everyone else. If we focus we can be successful at Big Tens."
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