April 15, 2014

Eagles clinch SAC crown with one-stroke win over Wingate

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman men’s golf won its second South Atlantic Conference Golf Championship and its first since 2004 with a single-stroke victory over Wingate at the rain and sleet-soaked Sevierville Golf Club Tuesday afternoon.

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman men's golf won its second South Atlantic Conference Golf Championship and its first since 2004 with a single-stroke victory over Wingate at the rain and sleet-soaked Sevierville Golf Club Tuesday afternoon.

The Eagles battled abysmal conditions and a Bulldog club that swapped the lead four times in the final nine holes with C-N.

The final lead change happened on 17. The Eagles' Jonathan Kim-Moss (Mississauga, Canada) made par on the hole while Wingate's Ben Gebhardt – the tournament's individual medalist – yanked his tee shot into the water to the left of the green. Gebhardt – who won the tournament by 11 strokes over Kim-Moss – bogeyed the hole to give the Eagles a stroke advantage as a team.

However, the dramatics weren't finished for the par-five 18th. Kim-Moss' third shot planted square in a bunker sloping up on the front side of the green while Gebhardt dropped his third ball within 15-feet of the pin.

Kim-Moss kissed 25-foot flop shot to two feet of the flag to put the pressure on Gebhardt. With a tough putt, Gebhardt's birdie attempt inch wide left of the cup and Kim-Moss saved par with his two-footer to clinch the victory for C-N. The Eagles had 925 strokes to the Bulldogs' 926.

"I didn't really know how close we were as a team," Kim-Moss said. "I didn't feel any pressure and didn't really realize what had happened until the team started cheering when I hit the final putt."

The win caps a wild month for the Eagles that saw Randy Wylie, C-N's head coach for roughly a month following John Minor's resignation in mid-March, guide Carson-Newman to a tournament win in his first event as head coach.

"This is amazing what these kids accomplished," Wylie said. "I came in and didn't know the level they could play. They told me they thought they could win this tournament, and that was before I had ever seen them play. The seniors on the team – Rafael (Jackson) and Jonathan – did a fantastic job keeping everyone focused and working hard."

Kim-Moss finished in a tie for second after a 77 (+5) for the third round. He was 11-over for the tournament. Kim-Moss earned first team all-tournament honors for his finish. Nicklaus Kennedy (London, Ontario) joined Kim-Moss in the top 10 with a sixth place finish. He earned all-tournament second team honors with a 77 (+5) as well for the final round.

The Eagles posted those scores under downright awful conditions. Players had to slog their way through a seven-hour round featuring rain, sleet and snow in 35-degree temperatures.

"We had a long talk before the round that we knew it would hard," Wylie said. "This was about who could hang in there the best to bring home the title. They fought and did just that. It wasn't about how many birdies they made, but how many doubles and triples they didn't make."

No player had more than three bogeys on the back nine for C-N.

Rafael Jackson (Rutledge, Tenn.) brought home a top-20 finish for the Eagles with an 80 (+8) for the final round. Dalton Reese and Corey Bray followed with an 80 and 81, respectively to both close in a tie for 25^th. C-N was the only school in the tournament with every player in the top 25.

Newberry finished third in the team standings at 931, followed by Lincoln Memorial in fourth at 934 and Tusculum in fifth at 935. Just 15 strokes separated the No. 1 through No. 5 positions in the final team standings.

Completing the field was No. 6 Queens at 943, No. 7 Coker at 950, No. 8 Brevard at 963, No. 9 Catawba at 965, No. 10 Mars Hill at 969, No. 11 Anderson at 973 and No. 12 Lenoir-Rhyne at 976.

Kim-Moss and Tusculum's Nick Forsberg finished tied for second on the individual leaderboard at plus-11 227. Rounding out the All-Tournament First Team were Newberry's Tommy Hurst and Catawba's Matt Hardman, who tied for fourth at plus-12 229.

The All-Tournament Second Team consisted of Kennedy, Newberry's Richard Mansell and LMU's Connor Froning – each of whom tied for sixth at 229 – and Queens' Alex Weare and Mars Hill's Adam Lumley, who tied for ninth at 230.

Carson-Newman's SAC title earns the Eagles an automatic bid into the 2014 NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship, which begins on May 5 at the South/Southeast Region in Savannah, Ga.