PETERSBURG, Va. – The Valdosta State men's golf team opened the 2023-24 season with a 9-over 585 through the first two rounds of The Griffin Invitational, hosted by Saint Leo University on the par 72, Country Club of Petersburg Golf Course. SLU leads the 14-team field with a 6-under 282 heading into Tuesday's final round.
Coker College and Goldey Beacom (Del.) are tied for second at 5-over 581, followed by Belmont Abbey (A) at 583, while VSU and Mount Olive are tied for fifth. Catawba is seventh at 586, followed by a tie for eighth between Palm Beach Atlantic and Virginia Union at 593, while Emmanuel (Ga.) is tenth at 593. Wilmington (Del.) is 11
th (598), followed by the Belmont Abbey (B) at 609, while Chowan is 13
th at 613 and Virginia State is 14
th at 639.
Individually, Saint Leo's Jake Nash fired rounds of 67 and 70 for a 7-under 137 score to lead the way in the 87-player field, while Jacob Ferrari of Belmont Abbey (A) is 4-under 140 (69-71). There is a tie for third between Saint Leo's Mathieu Lafontaine and Longwood's Daniel George at 3-under 141 and a 4-way tie for fifth at 2-under 142. Longwood's Willie Hoover and Saint Leo's Adrian Soriano are tied for ninth at 1-under 143.
For the Blazers, junior
Brandon Cho is tied for 11
th with an even par 144 on rounds of 71 and 73, while junior
Chase Long is tied for 14
th with a 145 on rounds of 75 and 70. Sophomore
Ty Folsom is tied for 26
th with rounds of 74 and 73 for a 147 score, while sophomore
Joshua Burki is tied for 45
th with rounds of 74 and 76 for a 150. Valdosta freshman
Landon Bassford is tied for 53
rd with a 151 score on rounds of 76 and 75. Playing as an individual, junior
Parker Highsmith is tied for 20
th with a 146 score on a pair of 73s.
The Blazers will tee off at 9:15 a.m. tomorrow morning for the final round, while Highsmith will tee off at 10:07 a.m. Check back with vstateblazers.com tomorrow afternoon for a final round recap and stats.
Fans can access live stats of the final round at vstateblazers.com on the men's golf schedule page. Rom the link on the schedule page for live stats, use the GGID password of FPEUTW on
www.golfgenius.com for the live stats.
