March 9, 2021

No. 25 Eagles claw back for seventh-place at Bearcat Classic

GREENWOOD, S.C. – Back-to-back rounds of 292 pushed No. 25 Carson-Newman three spots up the leaderboard on Tuesday for a seventh-place finish at 14-over at the Bearcat Classic in Greenwood, S.C.

The Eagles finished the rest of Monday's originally scheduled second round after it was called the day prior due to darkness. In that round alone, C-N was two shots better than where it left on Monday. It finished the 54 holes with an 878 total, mirroring the exact same score it saw at the Hurricane Invitational, the last event C-N played in before this one.

Carson-Newman ended up just two strokes shy of a top-five finish.

"I felt like it was an uninspired finish today by the Eagles," Carson-Newman coach Randy Wylie said. "I feel like we're playing much better than our results and we just need to concentrate and finish our rounds better."

All-told, six shots separated the five Eagles in the field with Alex Hodge (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Will Collins (Knoxville, Tenn.) pacing the group at 3-over for a tie at 25^th. As a team, C-N carded 36 holes in the final two rounds for birdie or better, including an eagle on the par-5 1^st-hole for Collins in the second round. It was under-par for 51 holes throughout the event.

Hodge led the group with 10 birdies in rounds two and three, splitting five in each round. The senior was even in Tuesday's finale thanks to those birdies overshadowing a pair of bogeys and a triple-bogey on the par-5 18^th.

Throughout the entire event, Hodge netted a team-high 13 birdies.

As for Collins, he was just one-shot shy of tying the new career-best he set at the Hurricane Invitational with his 219 this week. Sitting at one-over heading into his eagle shot, he followed that hole with a bogey on the par-3 2^nd hole to go even in the second. He was one shot higher in the third despite shooting for birdie four times with a trio of bogeys and a double-bogey.

The only Eagle to not be in a tie with a teammate by the end of Tuesday was Jackson Tyler (Wilmington, N.C.), holding a share of 36^th with a 5-over 221. After opening the event as the lowest-scoring Eagle with an even 72 on Monday morning that had him sitting in a tie for 23^rd, he carded a 73 and 76. This is the senior's lowest 54-hole score since his 219 at the 2019 Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate.

Both Jonathan Nielsen (Hørsholm, Denmark) and Jake Mynatt (Knoxville, Tenn.) wrapped up the Classic in a tie for 52^nd at 9-over.

Nielsen wrapped up his debut outing with his lowest round of the season on a 1-over 73. The freshman fired the most birdies in a single round for the entire team with six in the second round, but he was over-par on six holes. His bounce-back in the third round came with 13 holes for par and a pair of birdies.

Mynatt was a combined 3-over in his final two rounds of play after shooting the team's highest score of the week in Monday's opener. His 225 is the lowest 54-hole round score he has carded since the 2020 Hurricane Invitational where he finished with a 223.

Georgia College won the event at 8-under with an 856 total. Runner-up No. 2/1 Lincoln Memorial was the only other team to land in the red, sitting at 3-under. Newberry and No. 21/20 Young Harris rounded out the top-three with 2-over totals of 866.

LMU's Dan Bradbury and Young Harris' Peter Chung tied for first with 8-under 208 totals.

Carson-Newman faces a quick turnaround this week as it gets prepped for the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate. That three-day event starts on Sunday at the Sevierville Golf Club's River Course.

Carson-Newman	294	292	292	878	+14	7^th
Alex Hodge	73	74	72	219	+3	T-25^th
Will Collins	74	72	73	219	+3	T-25^th
Jackson Tyler	72	73	76	221	+5	T-36^th
Jonathan Nielsen	75	77	73	225	+9	T-52^nd
Jake Mynatt	78	73	74	225	+9	T-52^nd