October 7, 2014

Kennedy soars to win at North Georgia Fall Invitational

DAHLONEGA, Ga – It took Nickalus Kennedy (London, Ontario, Canada) four extra holes, but the Carson-Newman junior won the North Georgia Fall Invitational with a seven-under 209.

Kennedy's final-round 69 placed him into a sudden-death playoff with Georgia Southwestern State's Chris Low. Four pars on four consecutive holes propelled Kennedy to the tournament win.

Kennedy's win was the first individual win for a men's golfer since Gavin Hay won the Tusculum Invitational in March 2013.

"I obviously played well this week. The key was to trust the hard work I put in. My hard work paid off," Kennedy said. "Actually, I was not confident heading into the tournament but I trusted what I knew and it paid off."

Carson-Newman finished the tournament three shots over par and fourth-place on the leaderboard. The Eagles finished eight shots behind tournament winner Lander.

But Kennedy was not the only Eagle to finish in the top-10.

Junior Andrew Hall (Knoxville, Tenn.) shot his second 71 of the tournament to finish at two-under 214, placing him ninth.

Peach State native Dalton Reese (Warrenton, Ga.) finished at six-over to finish the tournament tied for 30^th.

Freshman Ben Kennard (Corryton, Tenn.) shot his collegiate low 72 during the final round. Kennard finished one shot ahead of classmate Steven Hill (Knoxville, Tenn.) who finished with a final round 79.

"I am very proud of how our team competed against really tough competition," coach Randy Wylie said. "Particularly proud of Nick; he hung in there and closed the deal. He was a rock in a pressure situation, sudden-death."

The Eagles return to the course next week in Tazewell, Tenn. at the 2014 State Farm Intercollegiate at Woodlake Golf Club.

4 Carson-Newman 288 291 288 867 (+3)

T-1 Nick Kennedy 68 72 69 209 (-7)

9 Andrew Hall 71 72 71 214 (-2)

T-30 Dalton Reese 72 74 76 222 (+6)

T-52 Ben Kennard 77 80 72 229 (+13)

T-56 Steven Hill 78 73 79 230 (+14)

-CN-