Feb. 10, 2012
BRADENTON, Fla. - In its spring opener, the Penn State men's golf team went head-to-head with Northwestern in the first round at the Big Ten Match Play Championship at the Concessions Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. The Nittany Lions fell to the Wildcats in a tiebreaker, Friday morning.
At the conclusion of the six matches, both teams held three wins. To break the tie, holes won were calculated, resulting in a Wildcats victory.
"It was tough to lose the tiebreaker to the eventual champion Northwestern," said Coach Nye. "We had a great chance at the end to win it."
Penn State's three wins came from senior Tommy McDonagh (East Norwalk, Conn.), junior Jay Woodward (Bridgeport, W.Va.) and freshman Jens Talbert (Little Rock, Ark.). McDonagh notched a 1-up victory over Northwestern senior Eric Chun. Play remained close throughout the entirety of the match, with a 2-up lead, attained by each golfer once, being the largest margin at any time throughout the round. Jay Woodward took a 5-and-4 win over freshman Bennett Lavin. The golfers were all square after the first hole before Woodward took control of the match, never allowing Lavin to recover. In his collegiate debut, freshman Jens Talbert clinched a 2-and-1 victory over Northwestern's Matthew Negri. The match sat all square through 13 holes before Talbert shot even par on the following four holes to take the win.
The Nittany Lion's three upsets came from junior Ernesto Marin (Miami, Fla.), sophomore Shane Stewart (Dublin, Ohio) and freshman Xander McDonald-Smith (Rockaway Park, N.Y.). Marin lost 4 down 3 to play to Sam Chien. Stewart fell 7-and-6 to Jack Perry. McDonald-Smith was defeated 5-and-4 by Nick Losole.