ETSU men’s golf earned a second-place finish in the Puerto Rico Classic from Sunday, Feb. 12, to Tuesday, Feb. 14, in San Juan, with sophomore Algot Kleen winning his first individual collegiate title.
Day one of the match proved successful with sophomore Mats Ege (Kristiansand, Norway) Kleen (Fiskebackskil, Sweden) taking the lead in the individual rounds and ETSU in first place as a team.
Ege shot the lowest round of his collegiate career with an 8-under-par 64. Carding eight birdies and 10 pars, he finished day one in the first-place lead for individual scoring.
Kleen matched his lowest round on Sunday of 6-under-par 66 and earned seven birdies throughout the day. Kleen hit a bogey but quickly bounced back on the next hole with a birdie par-5 600-yards.
By the end of Sunday, ETSU was in first place on the team scoreboard.
On day two of the event, junior Archie Davies (Carlisle, England) held the highest for the team with a 2-under 70 with an overall 3-under-par 141 for the match. Davies also earned an eagle on par-5, 547-yard No. 2.
Junior Remi Chartier (Montreal, Canada) earned the second eagle of the day for the Bucs with a three on par-5, 630-yard No. 18, and a birdie on par-4, 450-yard No. 9.
Kleen earned the same as Chartier, ending the day with a 1-under 71. He remains in second place individually with a score of 7-under-par 137 and was tied with Jackson Chandler from Ohio State University.
At the end of day two, the Bucs are in a five-shot lead for first place in the team leaderboard with a 3-under 285 for the day and a 19-under-par 557 for the event as a whole.
The final day on Monday shined bright for Kleen, totaling 10 pars and seven birdies. He finished the tournament with a 6-under 66 on Tuesday and an overall score of 13-under-par 203, winning the individual title. This was the first collegiate title he has won in his career.
The only other Buccaneer to win this title was David Christensen in 1999.
Over the weekend Kleen had 17 birdies, earning the most in the tournament.
Ege finished the tournament in a four-way tie for 10th place with a score of 7-under-par 209 and Davies tied four-ways for 24th place with a score of 4-under-par 212.
ETSU as a team finished the Puerto Rico Classic in second place with a score of 25-under-par 839 with Oklahoma coming in first. This marks the highest ranking the Bucs have received at this tournament with the other times in 1996 and 1999, when they placed third as a team.
The team will play next at the Wake Forest Invitational in Pinehurst, North Carolina on Monday, March 6-7.
