Greenville, SC - The Emory Oxford men's golf team brought home a 2nd place finish at the Competitor's Cup Match Play event hosted by Bob Jones University. The format of the event was two sessions with 5 single matches played in each. The team that won 3 points would win that session.
The Eagles took on the University of South Carolina's club team on the first day of competition. The Eagles got on the board early when freshman Stewart Zelnick wrapped up his match with an 8 & 7 victory. Shortly after, sophomore Alex Grainger picked up another point for the Eagles winning his match 6 & 5. Freshman Nick Paschetto secured the day 1 victory posting a 2 & 1 victory moving the Eagles to the championships session on Saturday.
Saturday's championship session pitted Emory Oxford against Columbia International University. The Eagles lost the match 3 to 2. Paschetto continued his outstanding play winning his match 3 & 2 and Zelnick completed his two-day sweep winning his match 2 & 1. Grainger's match ended on the 18th hole losing 1 down. Paschetto and Zelnick were named to the All-Tournament team with their 2-0 individual records for the tournament.
"Nick played great golf over the 2 days. He had 5 birdies on Friday and another 3 on Saturday. Stewart played solidly both days and worked hard to get the win on Saturday. What can be difficult about match play is that you can be playing really well individually but if your opponent is having an outstanding round and there isn't much you can do about it. First-year Ben Wiseman played well in the #1 position but he was playing against two golfers who were having great days and he took the loses on both days. Alex played steady during the two days, but his opponent on Saturday finished really strong. JC Smith was coming off of an injury and was playing in his first competition of the spring, but he ran into stiff competition which did not give him any openings during the two-days," stated Head Coach Molly McNamara. "While we would have loved to bring home overall win, I am very proud of how the men played during the event and earning the 2nd place finish. I hope that we can build on this experience as we had into the GCAA Conference tournament next week"
The GCAA Conference tournament will take place April 23rd and April 24th in Braselton, Georgia.