Men's Golf | 5/19/2023 5:41:00 PM
NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. The Methodist men's golf team tied for third place in the final standings of the 2023 NCAA DIII Men's Golf Championship on Friday, ending the tournament with a six-over par team total. This is Methodist's 38th top-five finish in 42 men's golf national championship appearances.
Carnegie Mellon University outpaced the field on Friday, shooting a stellar nine strokes under par as a team to boost the team's overall tournament score to one-under par – good enough to claim the school's first-ever team title in the NCAA DIII Men's Golf Championship.
THE ESSENTIALS
Event: 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship
Location: Keene Trace Golf Club, NCAA DIII Champion Trace (par 72, 6,974 yards); Nicholasville, Kentucky
Top-three teams: 1 – Carnegie Mellon University (292-285-295-279—1151, -1), 2 – Piedmont University (289-284-295-289—1157, +5), T3 – Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (296-285-294-283—1158, +6), T3 – Methodist (288-285-291-294—1158, +6)
Top-three individuals: 1 – Josh Hebrink, Piedmont University (69-74-72-66—281, -7), T2 – Alex Price, Christopher Newport University (69-71-75-67—282, -6), T2 – Robb Kinder, Christopher Newport University (69-72-70-71—282, -6)
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Aiden Spampinato had an excellent start to the day, recording four pars, followed by back-to-back birdies on holes five and six, followed by two more pars. He bogeyed the ninth, but still held a score of one-under par at the turn. Spampinato carded birdies on 11, 13 and 15 to boost his score to four-under par on the round before a bogey on 17 and a double bogey on 18 placed him back at one-under par.
- Cameron Cappuzzo rebounded from a bogey on the second hole with birdies on holes three and five. He then double bogeyed the seventh hole before adding a birdie on the eighth to bring his front-nine total to even par. Cappuzzo began the back nine with three-straight pars, then a bogey on hole 13. He canceled that extra stroke out with a birdie on the 15th but brought his round-four score to one-over par with a final bogey on hole 17. He still finished the tournament in seventh place on the player leaderboard with a four-day score of three-under par.
- Cooper Hrabak started the round with pars on the first three holes, then fell to two-over par after back-to-back bogeys on the fourth and fifth. A birdie on hole eight lifted him to one-over par heading into the back nine, then a bogey on hole 12 put him right back at two-over. Steady over his final six holes, Hrabak recorded five pars with a birdie on the 18th to finish the round at one-over par.
- David D'Agostino was the lone Monarch to birdie the first hole of the day. He followed that with a bogey on hole two, then recorded another bogey on the sixth hole. With a birdie on hole eight, D'Agostino returned to even par on the day, but a triple bogey on the ninth set him back three strokes. Bogeys on holes 10 and 12 pushed his score to five-over par, where it would finish for the round after a birdie on hole 14 and a final bogey on the 17th hole.
- Jonny Lewis opened Friday's round with a bogey on hole one, then bogeyed the third and fifth holes as well. He sank four-straight pars to safely finish out the front nine, then began the back nine with a bogey on hole 10. Lewis recorded a birdie on the 11th hole to get one stroke back, but then quickly returned to four-over par with a bogey on hole 12. He settled down before a final bogey on the 18th hole would give him a final score of five-over par on the round.
UP NEXT
This concludes Methodist's 2022-2023 season.
