University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
NCAA Tournament - Chapel Hill Regional
Upstate's Cornfield Tied for 15th at Chapel Hill Regional
5/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Chapel Hill, N.C. – USC Upstate's Ryan Cornfield posted three birdies on the day to shoot 2-under-par 70 and moved into a tie for 15th with one round to go at the Chapel Hill Regional in the NCAA Tournament Friday afternoon at the Finley Golf Course at the University of North Carolina.
Cornfield, the 13 teams and nine other individual players will close out the Chapel Hill Regional with the final round Saturday. The top five teams and the low individual not on the top five teams in the Chapel Hill Regional will advance to the NCAA Nationals May 29-June 3 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. Cornfield will enter the final round in third position in the battle for the lone individual spot to advance to nationals. He trails tournament leader JT Poston (Western Carolina), who is ranked 57th in the nation, by seven strokes. Belmont's Ashton Van Horne is at 5-under for the tournament, four ahead of Cornfield.
"Ryan has been tremendously patient over every shot and that is a big reason why he leads the field in pars," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "There was never a place today in his last 15 holes where any score worse than par entered his game. No doubt his work to this point has put him here and I wish him success for his efforts tomorrow. He is having lots of fun and that's a big part of executing great golf shots."
Cornfield took advantage of his play on the par-5's to shoot 70 Friday. In Thursday's opening round, he played the par-5's at 1-over with three pars and a bogey. Friday, he birdied both par-5's on the back nine and made par on both par-5's on the front to go 2-under, a turnaround of three strokes. The effort on the par-5's allowed the junior from Dudley, England, to move up 15 positions on the leaderboard Friday.
Cornfield began his round on the back nine, starting on the 10th hole. After a pair of pars to open the round, he bogeyed the par-3 12th, his third hole. However, he rallied with birdies on the par-5 13th and 17th holes to go out at 1-under and move to even for the tournament. The pair of birdies also moved him up the scoreboard to a tie for 23rd.
After five consecutive pars, Cornfield stepped to the 224-yard par-3 5th, his 14th hole of the round. He stuck a 4-iron to seven feet and made the putt to move to 2-under for the round and 1-under for the tournament. It also moved him into a tie for 14th at the time. He finished the round with four pars following the birdie to shoot 70 and move into the Top 15 on the individual leaderboard.
In the team standings, 11th-ranked Stanford shot a 275 to move into the lead at 11-under for the tournament and will take a one stroke lead into the final round.
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