GREENSBORO, N.C. – Senior
Tony Jiang and junior
Christopher Gotterup each carded top-5 finishes to help Rutgers men's golf finish second at the Grandover Collegiate in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four Scarlet Knights - Gotterup, Jiang and freshmen
Xavier Marcoux and
Brendan Hansen - finished with the top-25 of competitors as the Scarlet Knights closed out the fall with their highest team finish of the season.
RU (885: 288-298-299) finished nine strokes behind tournament champion and host UNC-Greensboro (876: 288-296-292) in the team race and six strokes ahead of third-place finisher Appalachian State (891: 297-297-297). UNCG's Nick Lyerly won the individual title with a three-under-par 213 (69-73-71).
"The scores reflected the difficulty of this course as well as the conditions throughout the tournament," said head coach
Rob Shutte. "Having a couple of our guys finish within the top five as well as to have our two freshman respond with impressive efforts during the final round is all encouraging. We've put ourselves in a position where we know that if we continue to compete and improve, we'll be in position to breakthrough into the postseason during the spring."
Entering the tournament as the Big Ten Conference's highest-ranked individual at No. 29 overall in the country, Gotterup carded his third consecutive top-5 result with his two-over-par 218 (73-73-72). Gotterup produced an even 72 during Monday's final round, highlighted by four birdies and 10 pars. Gotterup has also produced an individual title at the Notre Dame Classic (Oct. 8) and a tied-for-fifth result at the Quail Valley Intercollegiate (Oct. 21) during his impressive streak.
Jiang, who found himself atop the leaderboard after the first two rounds of the collegiate on Sunday, dropped four spots on the leaderboard to also tie for fifth with a 218 (71-69-78). Jiang finished his tournament with eight birdies and tied for first (along with Gotterup) in the field in par-3 scoring with a 2.92 (-1) average.
Marcoux moved up two positions during the final round to finish 17th in the field with a 224 (70-80-74), while Hansen tied for 24th with a 228 (74-79-75). Hansen and Marcoux appeared in the starting lineup for all five fall tournaments in 2019. Junior
Putt Sridama rounded out the team scorecard tied for 47th with a 233 (76-77-80). Competing as an individual, sophomore
Bobby Weise tied for 31st with a 230 (75-77-78).
Rutgers, currently ranked No. 82 in the country according to
GolfStat, heads into the offseason and will begin spring play with the annual Big Ten Match Play Championships, held Feb. 7-8 in Palm Coast, Florida.
Final Results
*competed as an individual
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