COLUMBUS, Ga. – The No. 27 Valdosta State men's golf team fired a final round 292 Tuesday and finished eighth at the 2021 Cougar Invitational with a 54-hole score of 880 on the par 70, 6,512-yard Green Island Country Club course.  No. 7 Lee overtook clubhouse leader and host, No. 12 Columbus State, to win the tournament with a tournament-low final round of 277 and an 838 score.
 
Delta State jumped from fourth to second with a final round 282 to go along with a 293 and a 282 Monday for a 54-hole score of 857.   The Cougars finished just behind the Statesmen with an 859 score as CSU finished the tournament with a 301 final round Tuesday.  Top-ranked West Florida finished fourth with an 860 score (296-280-284), while there was a tie for fifth between No. 25 Carson-Newman and No. 7 Georgia Southwestern at an 865 score.  
 
No. 11 Saint Leo was seventh with an 872 score, followed by the Blazers at 880.  No. 23 Florida Southern finished ninth at 883 and No. 26 Wingate rounded out the top ten with an 895 score.  Mississippi College finished 11^th (897), followed by No. 15 Georgia College (900) and Christian Brothers rounded out the field with a 904 score.
 
Individually, Lee's Oliver Lewis-Perkins and teammate Beck Burnette tied for medalist honors each with a 6-under 204.  Lewis-Perkins carded a tournament-low round of 64 on Tuesday, while Burnette was the only player in the field to fire all three rounds in the 60s (67-68-69).  West Florida's Elias Haavisto finished third with a 4-under 206, while Columbus State's Jordan Doull was fourth (208) and Delta State's Landon Carner was fifth with an even par 210.  
 
For the Blazers senior Gage Smith paced the team with a 216 score on rounds of 74, 71 and 71 as he tied for 12^th.  Junior Chase Weathers finished tied for 32^nd with a 220 score on rounds of 71, 74 and 75, while sophomore Ryan Pollman tied for 41^st with a 222 score on rounds of 73, 76 and 73.  Junior Davis Smith tied for 46^th with a 224 score (74-77-73) and graduate student Wesley Hanson tied for 51^st with a 225 score, finishing each round with a 75.  Competing as an individual, redshirt freshman Taylor Sweat finished tied for 76^th with a 238 score after carding rounds of 77, 79 and 82. 
 
The Blazers return home to host the NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional Preview, Oct. 4-5 at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club in Valdosta.  The Blazers were awarded hosting duties for the 2022 NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional also at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club in May, 2022.  
 
Click on the link to the right for complete results from the Cougar Invitational.