Tough Start to Fall Season for Men's Golf

Adam Hunt
Sports Reporter / Columnist

The Mercer Men’s Golf Team finished 14th at the Virginia Commonwealth Shootout.
The event was hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University and featured several top teams such as Wake Forest, Penn State and Virginia Tech.

The Bears struggled to find their form and slipped to a combined score of 909 across three rounds, three strokes behind Maryland (906).

Freshman William Meason led the team, shooting 77, 71, 74 to tie for 30th overall. Starting at the 14th tee for his final round, Meason played even-par golf through five holes before stumbling with a double-bogey. He then recovered strongly, recording even par scores before turning in a birdie at the 11th hole.

Lone senior Matt Tribby also recorded a 74 in his final round, lit up by four impressive birdies. This was enough to claim 45th place on the final leaderboard with a total score of 226.

Sophomore Andres Pumariega carded a final-round 75, while freshmen Alex Street and Matt Kocolowski recorded a 79 and 80, respectively.

Head coach Andrew Tredway will be looking for a big improvement in the coming weeks. He said “Our guys have to be more eager and play with more intensity. We have such a hard schedule that we need to be more eager to play well at home and then take that intensity on the road. College golf is all about getting the basics right and we just didn’t do that for long enough periods.”

The Bears will have to try to turn things around pretty sharply as they are back in action at the Rees Jones Collegiate tournament in Dafuskie Island, South Carolina on October 5-6.