DURHAM, N.C. – The Penn State men's golf team moved up two spots on Sunday to tie for fourth at the Rod Myers Invitational at the Duke University Golf Club. The Nittany Lions duplicated their second-round team score of 2-under 286 and posted an 864 (292+286+286) for the weekend.
Junior James McHugh (Rye, N.Y.) had 13 birdies on the weekend and carded a career-low 70 (2-under) in the third round to improve 12 spots to tie for 13th with a 215 (73+72+70). He tied teammate Lou Olsakovsky (Upper St. Clair, Pa.) who finished his first tournament as a starter at 1-over 215 (71+70+74).
"The team worked super hard out there today and played so many well-thought out shots," said Penn State head men's golf coach Greg Nye. "It was a battle to earn a top-five finish in an excellent field. All three newcomers to our starting lineup posted solid rounds throughout, and our experienced seniors were very solid all day today."
Penn State finished Saturday's second round in a tie for sixth place as Olsakovsky contributed with a 2-under 70 and junior Lukas Clark, senior Ryan Davis and McHugh all were at even par.
Davis recorded five birdies over seven holes midway through Sunday's round to help move the Nittany Lions into fourth. The Berkeley Heights, N.J., native finished the tournament with his best round at 71 (1-over) and a 221 for the weekend (78+72+71) to tie for 32nd.
Junior Lukas Clark continued his solid play from Saturday and finished in a tie for 27th at 3-over 219 (74+72+73). He added four birdies Sunday, including one on No. 18 to keep Penn State in the No. 4 spot. Alec Bard played even in the final round (72) and moved up 10 spots for a tie for 34th with a 222 (6-over).
Playing as an individual, freshman Jimmy Meyers (Wexford, Pa.), made steady improvement over the weekend and moved up six spots to tie for 66th (82+79+75=236) with a 3-over 75 in Sunday's round.
Wake Forest was 7-under as a team and had 25 total birdies in Sunday's final round to claim the 2019 Rod Myers Invitational championship. The Demon Deacons posted a 842 (22-under, 283+278+281) to tie for the third-lowest total in tournament history. Jonathan Brightwell of UNCG bounced back into the top spot by the end of the tournament Sunday with an 11-under 205 for the individual title.
The Nittany Lions return to the state of North Carolina next week as they will compete in the Old Town Club Collegiate in Winston-Salem Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 23-24.
Keep up to date with the latest information about the Nittany Lion Men's Golf team on Twitter at @PennStateMGolf and Facebook. Follow Coach Greg Nye on Instagram at @CoachNyePSU.
