No. 21 Virginia men’s golf placed fourth at the Linger Longer Invitational hosted in Greensboro, Ga., which wrapped up Tuesday afternoon. The fourth-place finish at the 13-team tournament allowed for Virginia to maintain its streak of consecutive top-five finishes to four, including every tournament of the spring season.
The team finished the three-day tournament with an aggregate score of 3-under 861. The Cavaliers finished behind Alabama, who won the tournament with an 12-under 852, as well as Georgia and Augusta State, who tied for second at 9-under 855.
Starting the tournament off hot, the Cavaliers posted a first round 9-under 279, which put them in third place, just two shots off the lead. However, the team followed their strong opening round with consecutive 3-over 291 performances in the second and third rounds of play. Despite the drop in score, Virginia was in second place heading into Tuesday’s final round and three shots off the lead. Tuesday’s 3-over round ultimately dropped the Cavaliers to fourth after a charging Georgia team posted a 12-under 276 to jump into a tie for second.
Individually, Virginia produced two players in the top 10 for the third consecutive tournament, with junior Derek Bard tying for fourth at 6-under 210 with fellow junior Jimmy Stanger coming eighth at 3-under 213. Stanger held a share of the lead coming into Tuesday’s final round, but dropped to eighth after shooting a final round 4-over 76. Freshman Thomas Walsh finished at 6-over 222, freshman Ashton Poole and senior Danny Walker finished at 7-over 223, while senior Nick McLaughlin, who didn’t contribute to the team score but played individually, finished at 20-over 240.
Head coach Bowen Sargent expressed satisfaction with the team’s consistent performance so far this spring season, specifically from Stanger.
“I think we’ve played really solid and really consistently to this point this year. I’m pleased with where we are,” Sargent said. “[Stanger] has played so solid this spring. I think he’s averaging [a stroke average of] 70.22 this spring, which is an incredible scoring average. He’s always had this in him, he knew it, I knew it.”
However, Stanger expressed concern about the bottom of his lineup.
“Our top four players have played really solid and really consistent week to week, but we are looking for some consistency from the five spot,” he said.
The Cavaliers now must wait until April 16 for their next tournament, which will be in Raleigh, N.C. for the Wolfpack Invitational, their last tournament before the ACC Championships the following weekend.
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