April 22, 2008

Round Two Results and Stats

BRASELTON, Ga. - The Kennesaw State men's golf team turned in the lowest round of the day to propel itself up the leaderboard Tuesday at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, finishing the second round in third place, just two strokes off of the lead held by East Tennessee State at 579.

Every member of the Owls squad improved their opening round score in Tuesday's second round, helping KSU pick up 20 strokes on day one leader, Gardner-Webb (284-305-589), and seven strokes on Campbell (294-292-586) to move into solo third.

They also picked up two strokes each on second place North Florida (293-287-580) and ETSU (292-287) to put them firmly in the mix at +12 heading into Wednesday's final round.

Oliver West (72-68-140) led the Owls charge, carding the second-lowest round of the day, a three-under par 68, to move from a tie for fourth to a solo second at 140. West, who leads the field with nine birdies, was consistently in the red numbers on Tuesday, putting together five birdies and an eagle on the par-five eighth for KSU's lowest round of the tournament.

The Owls other senior, Wesley Sheard, (74-70-144, +2) got out to a roaring start, birdying four of the first five holes to move into fifth place. He began a four-hole birdie-steak on the difficult second hole, where he turned in one of only two birdies recorded on the day.

Matthew Nagy (73-72-145) continued his solid play to put a trio of Owls into the top 10. After leading the field in pars in the first round, the freshman from Buena Vista, Fla. carded four birdies and only one bogey on the back nine to finish in a tie for 6th. His impressive back nine included one of only two birdies recorded on the course's hardest hole, the tenth, that was playing over half of a stroke over par.

J.P. Putnam (77-75-152), who was playing with a taped wrist, rounded out the Owls scoring. He turned in a four-over par 75 and stands tied for 24th at 10-over par. Michael Tulacz (79-76-155) again couldn't catch a break, but the junior still managed to improve his opening round score by three shots.

ETSU's Garreth Shaw is the tournament's individual leader, using a 67 in the second round to take a four shot lead over West heading into the final 18.

Kennesaw State will be paired with the Bucs and the Ospreys in Wednesday's final round. Tulacz will lead the Owls out of the blocks again, teeing off at 10:30 a.m. with his teammates following every ten minutes thereafter. Live scoring is available through Golfstat by clicking on the "Live Stats" link on the right-hand side of the Kennesaw State Athletics homepage.