GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Spalding University men's golf team had a historical run at the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship at Grandover Resort & Conference Center finishing 15th of 41 teams, the highest in school history. The Golden Eagles finished the tournament with a 293-309-307-311=1220 four-round total. Host Methodist University won the team championship, and Kelby Scharmann of La Verne won the individual crown.
Sophomore
Jonathon Gandia finished tied for 21st place out of 210 participants, marking the highest individual finish in school history. Gandia fired a pair of even-par 72's in the first two rounds placing him inside the top-15 on cut day. Gandia got off to a rocky start in round three bogeying four of the first seven holes, including a double-bogey on the par-3 16th. However, he rebounded with a birdie on 18 and went one-over on the front-nine to finish day three five-over. Gandia started strong in the final round going one-under through nine, but a bogey on the second hole and a triple-bogey on the sixth brought his score to a three-over 75.
Transfer
Michael Vick finished inside the top-50 carding 75-77-77-75=304 to finish tied for 46th place. Vick was up and down on the first-nine to be three-over at the midway point. Vick settled down on the final nine holes bogeying the 3rd, but got a stroke back immediately with a birdie on the 4th to finish the round at 75.
Brandon Sanner finished just outside the top-50 shooting 73-80-77-78=308 placing 56
th individually. Sanner started the final round in 58
th, but used a one-over performance on the final nine holes to jump his position a two spots.
Hunt Lenz finished 67
th overall carding 73-80-76-86=315. Lenz was in 51
st to begin the day and looked to be shaping up for a good round going even-par through the first eight holes, but a double-bogey on 18 snowballed into a plus-12 performance over the final nine holes to finish the round at 86.
Jacob Richardson had a solid showing carding 85-84-78-83=330 to finish 79
th. Richardson's 83 in the final round was the fourth best team score on the day. Richardson was pretty even keeled throughout shooting plus-5 on the first nine, followed by a plus-6 on the final nine.
