Murray State men’s golf is scheduled to travel to Orlando, Fla., for the three-day Mission Inn Spring Spectacular starting March 16.
The Racers are coming off the team’s third place finish in the March 11 and 12 Grover Page Classic hosted by UT Martin in Jackson, Tenn.
“Overall, we had a good tournament,” Head Coach Eddie Hunt said. “I was disappointed because we could have played better the first day. We could have won the tournament.”
“Patrick shot a 71 the last day,” Hunt said. “That was his second win of the season. He had a great tournament.”
“I played well. I really made a lot of birdies and putting,” said senior Patrick Newcomb. “I started out really slow and then played solid the rest of the rounds. I won by a pretty large margin. It was a pretty good week.”
Men’s golf is getting into the heart of their spring 2013 schedule with the Mission Inn Spring Spectacular in Orlando, Fla. that will feature golf teams from bigger schools including Purdue, George Mason and Virginia Tech. All of which will be included in the field of competition that Murray State will square off against March 16.
The Spring Spectacular will be played March 16-18 on the Las Colinas Course at the Mission Inn and the events are to be hosted by George Mason.
“We have a really strong field. We’ve played in that tournament before about 5 or 6 years ago,” Hunt said. “Purdue, Virginia Tech, some bigger schools we don’t get a chance to see much. Some of the east coast teams are coming to down to Florida to play on their spring break. It’s a beautiful golf course,” Hunt said.
Murray State’s second scheduled event, the Grover Page Classic in Jackson, Tenn., featured five OVC opponents. The first day of the Classic, which was held at the Jackson Country Club, ended with a fifth-place ranking for the Racers after playing 36 holes.
The team scored a 304 to land behind the fourth-place Union University team who earned a 302 to complete the top five. Lipscomb University topped the standings in first place with the lowest score of 292. Southern Illinois barely trailed Murray State in sixth place with a score of 306. Freshman Preston French finished the day strong with a 1 over-par 73 to earn fourth place overall in the field of 71 players.
Murray State played 18 holes for the second day of the Grover Page Classic to finish in third place with a total score of 898. The Racers landed behind UT Martin and Union University. Newcomb placed first overall by 6 strokes with a second day score of 71 in the tournament to secure his fourth career victory. Hunter York finished 12th and Preston French finished the classic in 17th. Tyler Brown and Brock Simmons placed 47th and 62nd.
The Racers will tee off in Orlando, Fla., for the Mission Inn Spring Spectacular starting at 8 a.m. at the Las Colinas Golf Course March 16.
Story by Kelly Farrell, Contributing writer.