GAINESVILLE, F.L. – The Georgia State men’s golf team opened the spring season with a tie for eighth at the SunTrust Gator Invitational, shooting a tournament-best 290 in the final round Sunday, February 15th, 2015.
Senior Damon Stephenson and freshman Alexander Herrmann led the Panthers in the final round, each shooting 1-over 71s.
The Panthers tied with Liberty and finished ahead of No. 34 UAB, College of Charleston, UCF, Jacksonville and Mercer.
“I was glad to see some better scores today, but unfortunately we had a couple of big-numbers that really hurt us,” head coach Joe Inman said. “If we can eliminate the double and triple bogeys, we have the ability to compete with anyone, but until we do that, it is going to be a struggle.”
As Inman alluded to, big numbers hurt the Panthers throughout the tournament. On Sunday, Herrmann made three back-nine birdies, but a triple-bogey eight on the par-5 seventh derailed his round. He finished the tournament tied for 46th at 15-over.
Stephenson made a pair of birdies en route to his 1-over round and finished the event tied for 33rd at 10-over.
Junior J.J. Grey shot a final round 5-over, 75, to finish the two-day event 10-over and tied with Stephenson for 33rd.
Senior Davin White added a 3-over, 73 on Sunday to shoot 12-over, tying for 40th.
Sophomore Nathan Mallonee rounded out the Panthers line-up shooting a final round 5-over, 75 to tie for 38th at 11-over.
No. 23 South Florida finished at 5-under par, the lone team in the red, to earn an eight-stroke victory over Arkansas, which finished at 3-over. No. 3 Florida State finished third at 5-over, followed by host Florida in fourth at 14-over. No. 50 Georgia Southern rounded out the top five at 27-over par.
South Florida’s Claudio Correa finished at 5-under par to earn low medalist honors. Florida’s J.D. Tomlinson and Arkansas’ Taylor Moore finished tied for second at 3-under, while South Florida’s Chase Koepka and Arkansas’ Kolton Crawford tied for fourth at 2-under.
Georgia State will return to the course in just over a week, traveling to California for the Jones Sports Invitational hosted by Pepperdine in Somis, February 23rd-24th, 2015.