Campbell Wins 2017 Men's Golf Championship
NINETY SIX, S.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Campbell finished with an team aggregate even-par 288 to complete its wire-to-wire finish and win the 2017 Big South Men’s Golf Championship by seven strokes over Liberty Saturday at The Patriot Golf Club at Grand Harbor (par 72, 7,120 yards) to earn the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals. Individually, the Camels’ Jesper Svensson captured Medalist honors with a Championship-record 14-under par 202 (67-66-69) to break Dustin Johnson’s Big South record by two strokes
FINAL RESULTS
The Camels finished with a Championship-record 26-under 838 for its first Big South men’s golf title since rejoining the league in 2012, as well as its first conference crown since 2009.
Saturday was shifted to a 36-hole day due to inclement weather forecast for Sunday’s scheduled completion. The second round began with an 8:30am shotgun start, and the Camels continued their first round prowess as the squad posted an 11-under 277 Saturday morning to move ahead by 11 strokes over second-place Liberty. The Flames tallied a 3-under 285 to remain in position and six shots ahead of third-place Gardner-Webb.
Svennson posted a 7-under 29 on his first nine holes of the second round, as his scorecard was sprinkled with five consecutive under-par scores from holes 4-8 -- four birdies plus an eagle. He finished the second round with a 6-under par 66, was the 36-hole leader at 11-under 133 and held a three-stroke advantage over teammate Thomas La Morte (8-under 136). Gardner-Webb’s Vincent Blanchette was third after two rounds at 7-under 137.
The final round began with a 2:00pm shotgun start and re-pairing of teams. Svensson would stretch his score to 17-under after a birdie on hole 14, but suffered a double-bogey and bogey later in his round. He still finished six shots ahead of Le Morte, who tied for second with Liberty’s Kieran Vincent at 8-under 208. Vincent carded a 65 in the final round to move up 11 spots and share the runner-up trophy.
Radford’s Myles Creighton and Liberty’s Mickey DeMorat tied for fourth at 6-under 210 to join Svensson, LaMorte and Vincent on the All-Championship Team. Creighton was Radford’s highest finisher in the Big South Championship since 2005.
Gardner-Webb completed the 54-hole standings in third-place with a 5-under 859, ahead of Charleston Southern’s even-par score of 864. Winthrop placed fifth at 882, while Longwood jumped into sixth on the team leaderboard with an 885. Radford was seventh at 890, followed by host High Point (8th, 899) and Presbyterian College (9thm 906).
Campbell will now await its NCAA Regional assignment at one of six locations in the nation, which will be contested May 15-17.