LAKELAND, Fla. – The Valdosta State men's golf team fired a 14-over 590 to sit ninth heading into Tuesday's final round of the 2024 Matlock Collegiate Classic on the par 72, 7,151-yard Lone Palm Golf Club course.
The Blazers opened the tournament with a 298 score and followed with a 292 score and sit one stroke back of Montevallo (eighth) and four strokes behind No. 24 Barton College (seventh). No. 11 Florida Southern leads the 15-team field with a 9-under 567, followed by No. 46 Lynn at 3-under 573. No. 13 Saint Leo and No. 26 Nova Southeastern are tied for third at 579, followed by No. 42 Barry at 582 to round out the top five.
Tampa, ranked 34
th nationally, is sixth with a 583 score, followed by Barton, Montevallo, VSU and Palm Beach Atlantic sits tenth at 596. No. 10 West Florida is 11
th (597), followed by Rollins (600), Embry-Riddle (601), Eckerd (624) and Georgia College is 15
th at 634.
Blazer freshman
Adam Waller leads the team as he fired a 2-under 142 on rounds of 72 and 70 sitting tied for seventh in his first collegiate tournament as a Blazer. In the second round, Waller had four birdies in a row for the most of any VSU player in the round and has totaled eight birdies in 36 holes. Junior
Chase Long is tied for 19
th with a 146 score on rounds of 71 and 75, while junior
Brandon Cho is tied for 28
th with a 148 score on rounds of 76 and 72. Sophomore
Joshua Burki is 65
th with a 157 score after carding rounds of 79 and 78, while freshman
Alexander Nilehn is tied for 66
th with a 158 score on rounds of 83 and 75.
The field played through about 45-50 minutes of rain during the first round this morning, but the scores improved the second round due to better conditions. Florida Southern's Adam Alvarez leads the field with a 6-under 138 on rounds of 72 and 66, while there is a three-way tie for second in the clubhouse between Lynn's Jose Ramirez, Saint Leo's Jake Nash and Barry's Amani D'Ambrosio at 5-under 139. In all, 12 players are under par and an additional three players are at even par.
Check back with vstateblazers.com tomorrow afternoon for the final results and recap of the tournament. In Tuesday's shotgun start beginning at 8:30 a.m., the Blazers will be playing with Montevallo and Barton College.
