HOLLYWOOD, S.C. - With only a couple of hours on an indoor range to tune them up, the Tiger men's golf team did well to finish 11th in a field of 15 teams at the Charleston Shootout on the Links At Stono Ferry in their first outing of the spring.
Georgia ran away with the team title, taking first place by 20 strokes over College of Charleston. Stephen F. Austin was third, 41 strokes back. The Bulldogs took the top two individual spots with Russell Henley garnering medalist honors with 9 under 207 for the 54-hole event.
The Tigers finished ahead of Maryland and Navy who placed 14th and 15th respectively. That finish has Towson ranked by Golfstat as the No. 1 team in Maryland of all five Division I schools; Loyola, Navy, Mt. St. Mary's, Maryland and Towson.
"This was a great way for us to open the season," said Tiger coach Brian Yaniger. "The players were frustrated only being able to practice indoors and on a snow covered driving range. We had not been on a putting green or short game range until we got to the tournament. The team played well and the fact that we led the field in pars made tells us that once the courses open here and we can fine tune our short game, we will be a very competitive team for the balance of the schedule."
Senior Chris Scialo paced the Tigers with three over 219 to tie for 13th in the field of 82 golfers. His final round even par 72 was Towson's low score for the event.
Junior Nyasha Mauchaza tied for 34th with a 225 followed by junior John Duthie at 229, freshman Johnny Hayes at 238 and senior Josh Jenkins at 247. Junior Pat Hinch played as an individual and posted a 243.
Team Scores: Georgia (280-286-280) 846, College of Charleston (297-284-285) 866, Stephen F. Austin (296-301-288) 885, Gardner Webb (302-294-293) 889, Charleston Southern (295-302-292) 889, Jacksonville (298-298-296) 892, Radford (298-294-301) 893, Stetson (301-299-295) 895, USC Upstate (301-298-296) 895, Presbyterian (306-297-295) 896, Towson (305-304-299) 908, High Point (300-306-307) 913, Longwood (309-310-301) 920, Maryland (312-316-297) 925, Navy (326-315-324) 965.
Tigers: Chris Scialo T13 (74-73-72) 219, Nyasha Mauchaza T34 (75-77-73) 225, John Duthie 50 (76-75-76) 229, Johnny Hayes 70 (80-82-76) 238, Josh Jenkins 78 (82-79-86) 247, Pat Hinch 76 (83-80-80) 243.
