AUGUSTA, Ga. – Led by junior Max Herrmann’s tie for eighth place, Georgia State finished ninth at the 3M Augusta Invitational at Forest Hills Golf Club on Sunday. Herrmann shot a third-straight 2-under 70 to lead the Panthers to a 2-under 286 in the final round of the 54-hole event.
For Herrmann, it was this third-straight top 12 finish as he finished at 6-under par. Standing at 3-over par thru seven holes, the junior made birdies on five of his final 10 holes to lead the Panthers who went 7-under on the final nine holes of the event.
Georgia State finished the event at 7-under par in a field that included six teams ranked in the Top 50, including four Top 25 teams in the latest GolfStat rankings.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys finished today,” head coach Joe Inman said. “We got off to a really tough start today, but our guys fought back. We made a ton of birdies coming home and allowed us to have a good result this week. It has been a long week with two really good tournaments, but I think we have put ourselves in a good position for postseason play.”
Sophomore Nick Budd shot a final round 72 to finish at 3-under and tied for 19th. For Budd, it was his third top 25 finish of the year.
Junior Alex Herrmann also shot 72 on Sunday and tied for 43rd at 2-over par, while senior Nathan Mallonee added a 72 to finish in a tie for 55th at 5-over par. Sophomore Nathan Williams rounded out the line-up with a 76 and finished tied for 66th at 8-over par.
Freshman Josh Edgar, competing as an individual, shot a final round 73 to finish tied for 60th at 7-over par.
UCF shot a final round 11-under 277 to win the two-day event by four strokes at 28-under par. No. 10 Wake Forest finished second at 24-under par, with New Mexico coming in third at 21-under. No. 11 Illinois finished fourth at 17-under, with No. 50 Augusta rounding out the top five at 15-under par.
Georgia State finished just one stroke back of No. 20 Georgia and three strokes back of No. 48 Houston.
Illinois’ Dylan Meyer, ranked No. 16 in the country, took low medalist honors at 11-under and received a sponsor’s exemption in the 2018 Valspar Championship. Wake Forest’s Will Zalatoris and UCF’s Bobby Bai tied for second at 10-under par, with UCF’s Manuel Elvira coming in fourth at 9-under par. New Mexico’s Andrej Bevins and Augusta’s Broc Everett tied for fifth at 8-under par.
Georgia State will return to the course April 23-25 for the Sun Belt Conference Championship in Destin, Fla., looking to win the eighth-conference championship in program history.