University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Wendy''s Kiawah Classic
Spartans Rally for 8th, Goins 9th at Wendy's Kiawah Classic
11/5/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Kiawah Island, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's golf team shot the sixth-best round of the day to move up three positions and finished eighth at the Wendy's Kiawah Classic Tuesday afternoon on the Turtle Point course at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort. Spartan Adam Goins closed out a solid tournament by finishing tied for ninth.
Upstate tied its best round of the tournament with a 297 in the final round. The Spartans entered the day 11th but jumped three positions to eighth, the same position they held after the first round. The Spartans closed out a standout fall season after winning two tournaments – the Springhill Suites Intercollegiate and Rutgers Invitational – and finishing fourth at Wisconsin's tournament.
Upstate got rounds of 72 from Taylor White, 73 from Ryan Cornfield and 74 from Goins to post the 297. Trey Taylor, playing in his first collegiate tournament, shook off the nerves from his first two rounds to shoot a career-best 78 as the fourth countable score on the day.
"At the level we are trying to compete, you have to have four strong scores," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "We could have honestly been better. But, we beat a couple of Top 100 teams and will take away some good things from this tournament and will work on getting better over the next couple of months to prepare for the spring. It was a good sign that when we struggled in the middle round and put pressure on ourselves to play better today, we did just that. We tied our best round of the tournament and moved back up the leaderboard."
Goins made a birdie and two bogeys on each nine to finish the final round with a 74. He totaled 3-over-par 219 for the tournament, tying for ninth as the top Spartan. After Cornfield played his first nine holes of the tournament 6-over-par, he played his final 45 holes 1-under to finish with a 221 total and in a tie for 13th to give Upstate two players in the Top 15. White finished tied for 26th with a 224 total. Taylor birdied two holes on his second nine of the day to shoot 78 and finished with a 251 total. Sebastian Lopez Bulla finished with an 83 Tuesday and a 240 total for the tournament.
"Adam, Ryan and Taylor were strong players throughout the tournament and Trey had it rolling the last round," said Lawton. "He worked hard to hang in there after the first two days playing in his first college tournament and helped us today. Taylor had his best round of the tournament today."
Marquette's Nick Nelson won the individual championship with a 210 total, claiming the title by two strokes over South Carolina's Matthew NeSmith.
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