Springhill Suites Intercollegiate Results -
2nd Round
Florence, S.C. – It took a year for Brad Sill to put on a USC Upstate golf shirt, but when he did, he made
it count as the sophomore and Dorman High School graduate stands
tied for eighth after day one of the Springhill Suites
Intercollegiate at the Country Club of South Carolina Monday
afternoon.
Sill, from Spartanburg, began his collegiate career at Winthrop,
but transferred to Upstate following his freshman year in May. He
qualified for the Springhill Suites Intercollegiate in the No. 1
position and did not disappoint in his first outing of the year. He
carded a 3-under-par 69 in the opening round on Monday, and
finished with a 73 to finish the day at 2-under par and in a tie
for eighth. He is seven strokes out of the lead.
"Brad was solid all day," said Upstate head coach
Todd Lawton. "The only real difference between the two rounds
was that he made some putts in the first round that he didn't
in the second. His ball-striking was very good and he put himself
in position to score."
Sill led Upstate to an opening round 292 as the Spartans were
in seventh place in the 15-team event. Despite getting more
consistent performances up and down the lineup in the afternoon
round, the Spartans turned in a 296. With many of the other teams
turning in lower rounds in the afternoon than in the morning,
Upstate fell to 11th place after 36 holes. However, the
Spartans are just five shots out of seventh and 10 strokes from a
top five finish.
Georgia College & State University will take the lead into
Tuesday's final round with a 562 total. Chattanooga is nine
strokes back at 571 and is followed by Jacksonville State (572),
Georgia Southern (574), Samford (578), Furman (578), USC Aiken
(583), Radford (584), Gardner-Webb (587), Elon (587), Upstate
(588), Charleston Southern (588), Presbyterian College (589),
Francis Marion (593) and Appalachian State (593).
"I was pleased that all five of the players contributed
throughout the day," said Upstate Lawton. "We played a
lot of steady golf. If you are going to excel at these tournaments,
you have to have a couple of players score really well and your
four and five players have to post solid rounds. Will coming back
in the second round was strong. We played well, but the scores show
us that we have to work on our shots coming into the greens. We
left ourselves too many putts outside of 20 feet and that was the
difference. I feel comfortable that this team has a lot of players
who can shoot at or below par. We are a young team and I think we
will become more consistent."
Chattanooga's Chris Robb fired rounds of 69 and 66 to
take the overall lead. He stands at 9-under-par 135 and owns the
individual lead by three strokes.
While Sill paced Upstate on the day, the other Spartans could
not quite match his consistency over two rounds. Matthew Hopper
(Gaffney, S.C.) opened the tournament with a 2-under 70. He turned
in a 78 in the second round and stands tied for 36th.
Tyler Comer (Pacolet Mills, S.C.) was solid as the third-lowest
Spartan, turning in rounds of 75 and 76. He is tied for
54th with a 151 total.
Will Graves (Rock Hill, S.C.), one of two freshmen in the
lineup for Upstate, made the biggest turnaround for Upstate from
the first round to the second. He opened with an 81, but shaved
nine strokes off of his score to post an even-par 72 in the second
round. He is tied for 63rd with fellow Spartan and
freshman Danny Brock (Simpsonville, S.C.). Brock turned in rounds
of 78 and 75, also lowering his score from the first round to the
second.
"In the second round, Will shot 36-36," said
Lawton. "Anytime he hit a shot where he didn't want to
be, he got up and down. He didn't make any big
mistakes."
