PINEHURST, N.C.  The improbable happened Sunday afternoon on the final holes of the final round of the two-day Tiger Invite, as Methodist's top-ranked men's golf team -- and the Invite's Day 1 leader -- rallied from fourth place with two holes to play to capture the Invite by one stroke over second-place (tied) Huntingdon College, Piedmont College and Guilford College.

Regardless of a No. 1 (Golfstat.com Division III) ranking, leaping three teams on any leaderboard that late in a tournament -- let alone the Nos. 2 (Huntingdon), 3 (Guilford) and 5 (Piedmont) teams in the Golfstat rankings -- is unexpected, improbable, far-fetched, unlikely…uhhhh…but wait…doesn't this make a second consecutive tournament victory for the Monarchs?

Are results such as these perhaps getting to be expected, probable, believable, likely?

JUST THE FACTS
Event: Tiger Invite
Host: Hampden-Sydney College
Course: Forest Creek Golf Club (par 72 – 6,925 yards)
Location: Pinehurst, N.C.
Leaders, team: 1 – Methodist (289-291—580, +4), T-2 – Huntingdon College (292-289—581, +5), T-2 – Piedmont College (292-289—581, +5), T-2 – Guilford College (296-286—581, +5)
Leaders, individual: T-1 – Max Schwarz, Emory University (69-68—137, -7), T-1 – Pierce Robinson, Wash. & Lee University (69-68—137, -7), T-3 – Cooper Hrabak, Methodist (68-71—139, -5), T-3 – Henry Angier, Methodist (67-72—139, -5)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Knew you'd wait until we got down here.
• It just wasn't supposed to happen, but it did. 5-under par as a team over the final two holes, the par-4 17th and par-5 18th. Fourth place to first place.
• Start with the two guys who finished tied for third in a field of 70 players, freshman Cooper Hrabak and all-region senior Henry Angier. They only parred both holes, cementing their spots on the individual leaderboard, two shots shy of its top position.
• Next up, freshman Joseph Pritchard. A bogey on the 17th wasn't a good omen. But how about writing in an eagle on his scorecard for the 18th?! Pritchard (77-75—152, +8) finished in 36th place overall, and the eagle was part of the Monarch magic on those final two holes.
• And the fourth scoring golfer at the Invite for Methodist? Junior All-American Andre Chi (77-73—150, +6) went crazy in closing out a 30th-place finish, vaulting up the final leaderboard with an eagle on the 17th, and a birdie on the 18th. Perhaps in an earlier good omen Sunday, Chi erased a double bogey on the 2nd with his first eagle of the day on the 3rd.
• Fighting through a challenging weekend, senior All-American Zane Brownrigg (T-49th; 80-79—159, +15) also joined the act, recording a par on the 17th before knocking down a birdie putt on the 18th.

STATS 'N' AT

• In all, Methodist finished the Invite shooting a collective +2 on the par 3s at Forest Creek and 3-under on its par 5s, both a tournament best.
• Piedmont collected 63 pars to lead the field, but Methodist was just behind, accumulating 58 over Saturday and Sunday.
• Angier and Hrabak played the par 4s in 3-under, second best in the field.
• In addition to Golfstat's 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th-ranked teams, the Invite also include No. 7 Averett University, No. 9 Oglethorpe University, No. 10 Greensboro College, No. 14 (and host) Hampden-Sydney College, and No. 23 Washington & Lee.

UP NEXT
It doesn't get any easier for Methodist, whose next outing is the Jekyll Island Collegiate Invitational on March 19-21, an event that regularly brings in 30 squads, most of whom are ranked in Golfstat's D-III ratings.