Sunday, October 16, 2005

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (Oct. 16, 2005) - The South Carolina men's golf team attempted to sweep through the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at The Ridges on Sunday and steal away with all the hardware, but ETSU junior Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) had other plans.

            While the Gamecocks fired a three-round score of 5-under-par 859 to cruise to the team championship by eight strokes over second place Auburn, Davies held off South Carolina's Florian Fritsch by three strokes to capture the individual championship and deny USC the sweep. Davies birdied the final two holes of the event to post the second-best, three-round individual score in the tournament's eight-year history - an 11-under-par 205 (68-69-68) - and he becomes the first ETSU player to win the team's host event.

            "This is a big college event, and always has been," said Davies, who upped his ETSU record for individual tournament championships to seven. "I've set my sights on this tournament ever since coming to college, so winning it makes me happy."

            Davies, who has now posted 20 career sub-70 rounds, also helped the Bucs to their best-ever finish in the event, as they placed third at 7-over-par 871. The top five teams included South Carolina and Auburn, TCU and ETSU tied for third, with North Carolina and Alabama tying for fifth.

            "I'm very proud of Rhys," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren. "This was just another great performance from him. He had high expectations coming into this weekend and he met them with a big win."

            Along with Davies, other ETSU results included sophomore Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland) tying for 16^th at 219, and sophomore Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) tying for 22^nd at 221. Other Buc finishes included freshman Adam Hodkinson (Dore, England) tying for 56^th and freshman Jordan Findlay (Fraserburgh, England) tying for 69^th.

            The Bucs will return to action Nov. 4 at the Carpet Capital Intercollegiate in Dalton, Ga. Fans can visit ETSUBucs.com for all the latest on ETSU men's golf.