ETSU Men’s Open intercollegiate golf season opened with an impressive 15th place finish on Saturday .
The ETSU men’s golf team opened its fall season at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at the Ridges in Johnson City over the weekend.
The playing field consisted of nine of the top 30 teams in the country. No. 2 Clemson came in as the highest ranked team. Other Top 25 teams included were TCU (10), South Carolina (15), Oklahoma (18), Wake Forest (21), Duke (23), and Kansas (24).
The complete field included No. 28 LSU, No. 30 Tennessee, No. 31 North Carolina, East Tennessee State, Virginia and Virginia Tech, Florida State and Alabama.
ETSU got as high as seventh in the first two rounds before finishing day one in 15th place.
In the individual scores ETSU was led by junior Cennydd Mills finishing tied for 10th at 2-under par. “I hit the ball so well,” Mills said. “I could hole par putts, but not the birdie putts.”
The second-round leader ended with Oklahoma 4-under par, with Tennessee, TCU and Clemson in a three-way tie for second, two strokes back. The lead changed though many times between teams including Tennessee and Wake Forest being as low as 7-under.
The Bucs were playing with a much-weakened team over the weekend.
Standout players Rhys Davies and freshman Cian McNamara were playing in the Home Invitational in Scotland.
“I really didn’t have a lot of expectations,” Warren said. There still was some good in Saturday’s play with two players finishing in the Top 20 in individual scoring, including freshman Gareth Shaw.
“Gareth has a lot of talent” Warren said, “There are a lot of unusual stresses in your first college golf tournament, I think he handled them very well.
“Playing 36 holes out here in this tournament, in this weather, and being 1-over is very commendable,” he said.
Shaw finished the day tied for 19th after the first two rounds.
In just the past three years the annual tournament has become one of the nation’s best tournaments.

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