Men's Golf Finishes 8th at St. Andrews Classic

WAGRAM, NC - The Columbia College men's golf team competed in the St. Andrews Fall Classic on Monday and Tuesday and came away with an 8th place overall finish at Deercroft GC in central NC.

The NAIA event featured five other AAC teams along with two junior colleges, Columbia's "B" team and three other NAIA schools. The Koala A team finished the three-round event shooting scores of 312, 312, and 315 to finish 75 over par as a team in the 15-team tournament and in 8th place. The Koala B team then placed 13th shooting rounds of 322, 328 and 330. NW Ohio won the meet with rounds of 288, 287, and 301 while SCAD-Atlanta was 2nd followed by WV Tech, Truett McConnell, and Pikeville to round out the top five.

Leading the men was senior Blake Vaughn who finished 11th as he steadlily improved each day shooting 79, 74 and finally even par 72 in round three with five birdies to finish 9 over par at 225. Vaughn's 72 was the second best score of round three. Freshman Thomas Campbell then finished 25th at 17 over 233 with rounds of 72, 85, and 76 as his middle round was the only negative on his week.

Senior Jacob Fink then led the B team placing 36th at 22 over 238 with rounds of 81, 82 and 75 while teammate Ryan Lord was 43rd for the B team at 241 with rounds of 76, 82 and 83.

Three Koalas then tied for 50th as freshmen Josh Brown, Jaxon Mock, and Christian Hadley shot 28 over 244s. Brown was 81-82-81, Mock was 81-80-83 and Hadley 80-80-84. Freshman Zach Mock then placed 54th at 246 shooting 82-78-86.

The Koala men will next hit the links on Oct. 28-29 when they head to Adairsville, GA for the AAC Fall Preview tournament from Barnsley Resort.