Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
NCAA Regionals
Wake Forest Keeps Pace At NCAA Northeast Regional
5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
May 15, 2009
GALLOWAY, N.J. - The Wake Forest men's golf team started the day in second place but a second-straight round of 297, in calmer conditions, has dropped the Demon Deacons to fourth after 36 holes of the NCAA Northeast Regional at the Galloway National Golf Club (Par-71, 7,022 yards).
Despite the slide, the Demon Deacons hold a 5-shot edge on sixth-place Colorado State, in the race for that elusive trip to the NCAA Championships.
The top-five teams at the end of the round on Saturday will advance to the NCAA Championships at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, May 26-30.
"We were just a bit off today," said Wake Forest head coach Jerry Haas. "The conditions were easier but it's still a tough golf course and you have to go out there and hit good shots. It was a bit unfortunate that we shot the same score we did yesterday but we have to keep fighting. I still think we can come out tomorrow and catch a few teams ahead of us and move up."
Junior Brendan Gielow and senior Dustin Groves posted the lowest scores of the day for the Deacons at 2-over 73. Gielow made 14 pars and one birdie in his round while Groves was a bit more up-and-down, making a total of three birdies to counter three bogies and a double.
This was Gielow's second-straight round of 73 and he will start the final round tied for ninth. Groves carded a 74 yesterday and will start his round Saturday tied for 13th at 5-over.
Junior Travis Wadkins rebounded for a 79 yesterday to card a 75 on Friday while freshmen Daniel Meggs and Lee Bedford each shot rounds of 5-over 76.
Bedford is now 6-over after two days and tied for 16th while Meggs and Wadkins are each 12-over and tied for 36th.
By the turn, Wake had slipped to fourth place but got birdies from Gielow, Groves and Bedford on the par-5 11th to bring the Deacs to just 2-over for the day and move them back into second.
However, Wake would play the next three holes, 12, 13, and 14, at 8-over par to fall back to fourth, which was where it finished the day.
Alabama posted the low-round on Friday with a 1-over 285. Bud Cauley opened with a round of 79 but made six birdies on Friday to post the lowest individual round at 4-under 67.
Tennessee continues to lead the tournament as the Volunteers carded a round of 287 on Friday and hold a five-shot cushion on Alabama for second.
ACC-foe Virginia posted a 291 in the second round and is currently third at 21-over followed by Wake at 26-over and Illinois at 27-over.
Colorado State made a bit of a move on Friday, carding a round of 290 to move into sixth at 31-over.
After shooting a 312 in the opening round and struggling out of gate in round two, Kent State closed the day 9-under over the final five holes to climb to seventh and is just 6-shots out of fifth place.
Clemson, who is the top-seeded team in the regional, will need a great final round if it wants to make the NCAA Championships. The Tigers opened with a round of 310 on Thursday and could only manage a round of 299 on Friday and currently stands ninth, 14-shots behind Illinois for fifth.
Thursday's round only saw one player shoot even-par as the high winds caused all sorts of problems. The conditions were much more benign on Friday and a total of 11 players shot par or better. In fact, the scoring average dropped from 79.20 in the opening round to 74.82 on Friday.
"We just need to stay focused and go out there and take care of our business tomorrow," said Haas about Saturday's round. "We're going to be in the first wave off the front with Illinois and Colorado State so we'll be able to sort of gauge where we're at but we can only control how we play. The guys are a little upset with how they played today, which is good. So I'll keep them fired up and we'll go out and take care of business tomorrow."
Wake Forest will indeed be the first pairing off the front nine Saturday morning at 8:50 am, with Illinois and Colorado State. Live scoring of the final round can be found at www.golfstat.com.
Wake Forest Scores
T9 Brendan Gielow 73-73=146 (+4)
T13 Dustin Groves 74-73=147 (+5)
T16 Lee Bedford 72-76=148 (+6)
T36 Daniel Meggs 78-76=154 (+12)
T36 Travis Wadkins 79-75=154 (+12)
4 TEAM 297-297=594 (+26)
Players Mentioned
