An 11th-place finish against a stiff course and some of the toughest college competition around “may not be great,” according to ETSU head coach Fred Warren, but it’s “certainly respectable.”
Indeed, the Bucs came away with that result last weekend in the Ping/Golfweek Preview International at the Ohio State University Scartlet Course in Columbus, Ohio, carding a 39-over par aggregate score, 29 shots behind champion Clemson.
“I’m actually pleasantly surprised,” Warren said about the standing of his club, which includes only two non-freshmen, juniors Adam Riddering and James Johnson.
Like he had done at The Ridges earlier this month, Welsh freshman Cennydd (pronounced Kennid) Mills put up the best individual score, finishing in a tie for 19th with a 6-over, three-round tally.
“Cennydd had a solid tournament,” Warren said.
Riddering, who was No. 2 for the Bucs, finishing in a tie for 37th place at 10-over par, was also impressed by Mills.
“This isn’t a fluke,” he said. “He’s going to keep playing well.”
“I think I played OK,” Mills, more humbly, said of himself, pointing to two holes, on which he posted a triple-bogey and a double-bogey, that tripped him up.
“The scoring showed how tough the course was,” Mills added, citing some difficult pin positions.
Indeed, though Clemson led a premier field wire-to-wire, even the Tigers were not able to finish any better than 10-under par.
That field included both Arizona and Arizona State, ranked second and ninth respectively, in the Golfweek poll. The Bucs finished ahead of them both.
ETSU is ranked 28th in those computer-generated rankings, while they are 16th in the Golf Coaches Association ratings.
So which is more accurate?
“That’s a good question,” Warren said.
In Golfstat’s Head-to-Head Standings, released Wednesday, the Bucs are 21st.
Regardless, Warren said it was too early to get caught up in polls.
“You kind of gear up for the whole year,” he said, instead.
Now, after two “comparable” performances, according to Warren, at The Ridges and the Scarlet Course, the young Bucs travel to The Farm Golf Club near Dalton, Ga., for the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic. It’s another tough slate of competition which will include last week’s first- and second-place finishers, Clemson and Wake Forest, as well as Golfweek’s No. 1 ranked team, Florida.
Then, it’s off to the Duke Classic in Durham, N.C., for a third tournament in as many weeks.
The players, however, are up for yet more challenges.
“I think that’s one of the reasons they came here,” Warren said.
Mills said: “I feel quite comfortable (at this level of competition).”
While going in consecutive weeks doesn’t intimidate the junior Riddering, Mills said that while the competition itself is something he welcomes, playing tournaments on consecutive weekends, something to which he’s not accustomed, it is “just something you’ve got to get used to.”
The Bucs other finishers were junior James Johnson (t 43rd), freshman Noel Kavanaugh (t 64th) and redshirt freshman Marco Trejos (t 64th).

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