Bouncing back with a sound one-over-par 289 in Tuesday’s final round, No. 22 Florida Tech solidified a quality fourth place finish at the Sunshine State Conference Championship, but can only wonder “What if?” after the way the week started. (FIT Image)
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Bouncing back with a sound one-over-par 289 in Tuesday’s final round, No. 22 Florida Tech solidified a quality fourth place finish at the Sunshine State Conference Championship, but can only wonder “What if?” after the way the week started.
The Panthers opened with a collective eight-under-par 280 to pair along with their closing effort, but sandwiched in between was an unfortunate 13-over-par 301 that proved costly in the long run.
“The round they put together (round one), that was something special,” said head coach Chris Saltmarsh.
“You don’t necessarily expect them to do it again, as much as you’d like to, but you also don’t want to see two extremes. Monday was a big killer for us. If we just played an average round, that would’ve been about 10 shots lower and kept us in the thick of things, possibly given ourselves a chance down the stretch today.”
Nevertheless, Saltmarsh is proud of the way his team responded.
The Panthers failed to shoot higher than 74 in round three, and senior Ray Badenhorst, yet again, corralled a top-10 finish.
Chris Saltmarsh
“We’re still striving to get better, but to rebound the way we did was a positive,” he said.
“It was still a good performance, picking up some key wins over Barry and Saint Leo, which are two teams we’ve gone back-and-forth with.
“We are getting closer, and if we can find a way to stick it out for three straight rounds at regionals we’ll have an opportunity to make our way to the national championship,” said Saltmarsh.
In addition to Badenhorst’s overall one-under-par performance, fellow senior Brandon Lau followed two strokes behind, rounding out play in a tie for 12th.
As for the rest of the lineup, both Ryan Carter and Gaelan Trew tied for 22nd at seven-over-par, and sophomore Joe Ellis’ 11-over-par earned him a 26th-place finish.
Lynn was crowned champions, knocking off top-ranked Nova Southeastern by a comfortable eight strokes.
Florida Southern’s John Van Der Laan took home individual honors, as his nine-under-par score edged out teammate John Coultas by a mere three shots.
Final Standings
1. Lynn (-12) 852
2. Nova Southeastern (-4) 860
3. Florida Southern (+2) 866 4. Florida Tech (+6) 870
5. Barry (+17) 881
6. Saint Leo (+25) 889
7. Rollins (+36) 900
8. Tampa (+39) 903
9. Eckerd (+93) 957
