Men's Golf | 4/23/2021 7:23:00 PM

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.  Though Methodist finished in third place on the team leaderboard, conference Rookie of the Year Cooper Hrabak will cart home a trophy as the 2021 USA South Athletic Conference Men's Golf Championship individual medalist.

Hrabak moved up three spots with a final-round even-par 72 to tie Round 2 leader Ben Balen of team champion Piedmont College. Balen shot a 3-over 75 in Round 3.

The playoff for individual champion did not take long as Hrabak birdied the 371-yard, par-4 1st while Balen was unable to sink his birdie putt.

Piedmont (920, 56-over par) captured the conference title by four strokes over Huntingdon College (924, +60) and by 12 over the Monarchs (932, +68).

THE ESSENTIALS
Event: 2021 USA South Men's Golf Championship
Host: North Carolina Wesleyan College
Course: Benvenue Country Club (Par 72, 6,525 yards)
Top teams: 1 – Piedmont (314-300-306—920, +56), 2 – Huntingdon (326-304-294—924, +60), 3 – Methodist (318-298-316—932, +68)
Individual leaders (*won in playoff): T-1 – Cooper Hrabak*, Methodist (79-74-72—225, +9), T-1 – Ben Balen, Piedmont (76-74-75—225, +9), 3 – Owen Burt, Huntingdon (78-76-72—226, +10)

ROUND 2 and 3 NOTES

• All teams began Friday on No. 10 to complete the second half of Round 2.
• Methodist began the back nine of Round 2 trailing Piedmont by five strokes, but trimmed that to just a two-shot deficit by the conclusion of the round. Cameron Cappuzzo's 1-over round led the way for the Monarchs, with both Hrabak and Henry Angier supplementing Cappuzzo's efforts with 2-over 74s.
• The Round 3 rally never materialized, though. Hrabak's 72 was the only Methodist round under 81, while Huntingdon registered four players at 77 or better to leapfrog the Monarchs for the runner-up spot.
• Hrabak steadily improved over the three rounds of the championship, putting together the best nine holes of his tournament on the front nine of the final round. His 2 under at the turn included birdies on Nos. 3 and 7 while every other putt rolled in for par. He wasn't able to trim strokes on the back nine, but seven more pars with only a pair of bogeys were enough to lift the freshman up to Balen on the leaderboard.
• Henry Angier (80-74-81—235, +19), a second-team all-conference selection, wasn't able to match his second-round 2 over, but he fought through third-round challenges that included six bogeys and two double-bogeys to end the tournament in the top 20, finishing in a tie for 15th place. His birdie on No. 10 had halted a string of three bogeys, and for the round he carded nine pars
• First Team All-Conference performer Andre Chi (77-77-83—237, +21) lost several battles with the Benvenue course on the front nine of his third round, hitting the turn at a 10-over 46. But the junior flipped the results on the back half, surrendering just two bogeys to the course while adding in a birdie on the 11th and straight pars over the other six holes to complete his tournament tied for 19th place.
• Cappuzzo (82-73-81—236, +20) began his final round continuing some of the magic he'd experienced in Round 2, dropping in a birdie putt on the par 4 1st. The sophomore parred the next two holes but registered a double on No. 4 to slow his momentum. Cappuzzo held firm on the 5th and 6th but lost out to the course on the last three holes on the front, heading into the turn after bogey, double and double. His back half included a pair of birdies and three pars, but a five-stroke swing in the wrong direction over Nos. 13-16 did some damage to his scorecard. He answered, though, by finishing birdie and par on the final two holes to claim 18th place on the leaderboard.
• Senior Zane Brownrigg (89-81-82—252, +36) just never found the rhythm of the Benvenue layout over the two-day, three-round event. His final round included three birdies, but two bogeys, four doubles and one triple against just eight pars.

STAT STUFF

• Despite his 19th-place finish, Chi tied for the best results on the par 3s, closing out the tournament at just 2 over for a 3.17 average on the short holes. Angier, Cappuzzo and Hrabak were next in line at a cumulative 3 over (3.25).
• Hrabak and Balen led the field on the par 4s, averaging 4.13 on them and finishing 4 over.
• The cumulative pars leader for the tournament was Hrabak with 37, edging out Chi's 35 that tied him for second most.
• Huntingdon's 149 pars were three better than Methodist's and six better than Piedmont.
• But Piedmont played the par 4s better than anyone else in the field, ending the tournament with a 4.35 average, picking up seven strokes against Methodist (4.40) and eight against Huntingdon (4.41).

UP NEXT

• The USA South's champion has an automatic bid (Pool A, AQ) into the 2021 NCAA Division III Men's Golf championship, with Piedmont earning that AQ.
• Methodist and Huntingdon are now part of a what is termed Pool C -- institutions from Pool A that do not earn their conference's AQ.
• The championship field will consist of 37 teams, 31 Pool A squads, 3 Pool B teams (independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification), and just 3 Pool C selections.
• Final selections to the championship will be announced on Monday, May 3 by 8 p.m.