Cone leads Mercer with 5th Place Finish at Kiawah

J. Andrew Lockwood
BearZone Columnist

Josh Cone can flat out play some golf. The junior showed his potential at the season-opening tournament for the Mercer men’s golf team in Charleston, South Carolina, finishing four strokes back from the eventual winner, John Duke Hudson (College of Charleston). After shooting a 76 during the first round, Cone looked sharp in the final two rounds, shooting 71s to end with a three-day total of 218. Cone’s finish helped propel Mercer to a tie for 7th place in the 12 team tournament.

"Josh Cone had an outstanding tournament,” said head coach Andrew Tredway. “I think he realized this week that he can play with anyone in the country and he certainly should feel that way with that performance against a top field. The thing he has to do now is continue to work hard and put in the time to consistently be able to play the way he is capable of playing," he added.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the opening tournament for Tredway was the way his team responded to adversity. After notching a 10th place finish as a team following the 1st round, the Bears fought to lower their score by five strokes each day to move up into an eventual tie for 7th with Davidson. North Carolina State (+9) won the team title, besting Mercer by 24 strokes.

"We're pretty excited about the team we have and for the possibilities for this year. This was a deep, quality tournament and to go out and finish 7th, beat some good teams and stay close to Vanderbilt says a lot about the makeup of our guys," said Tredway.

Matt Kocolowski improved each day of the tournament too, moving up 13 places to finish in a tie for 20th place (+10), while teammates Stefan Labuschagne (T-33rd, +13), Thomas Holmes (T-38th, +14), Mookie DeMoss (T-48th, +17), and John Gregory Joseph (T-52nd, +18) would round out Mercer’s six man roster.

"I'm really proud of the way this team hung in there this week,” Tredway added. “ Several of them got off to rough starts and really gutted it out to help the team. Kocolowski did that early in the tournament and ended up finishing top 20. That ‘never die’ attitude is what we've been missing, and now we have it."

With four new golfers on the scorecard for the tournament, the Bears are quickly reshaping their identity on the links. Following the two day tournament at the Kiawah Island Ocean Course, the Mercer men will travel to the Hermitage Country Club in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia for the Virginia Commonwealth University Shootout. The VCU Shootout will be the final tune-up for the Bears before they host the nationally recognized Brickyard Collegiate in Macon on October 8-10th.