Friday, June 03, 2005

            OWINGS MILLS, Md. (June 3, 2005) - East Tennessee State sophomore Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) fired his best round so far in the NCAA Championships, posting a 1-over-par 71 during third round play Friday at the Caves Valley Golf Club.

Unfortunately, despite the solid effort, Davies still missed the cut for the fourth and final round, as the score needed for an individual competitor was 7-over-par. Davies finished Friday's round at 10-over for the event.

"It's disappointing," said Davies, who enjoyed arguably the best individual campaign in ETSU golf history with five individual championships and nine Top 3 finishes in 12 tournaments. "I had a more uneventful round today with more positives, but I struggled off the tee again and that's frustrating. I need to work on my rhythm and timing some, but once I get that back I should be OK."

            Davies, who earned a spot in the championships with a second-place finish in the NCAA East Regional and entered the event as the No. 2-ranked player in the country by Golfweek, began the day's third round at 9-over-par and tied for 96^th on the individual leaderboard. With his round on Friday, Davies improved his standing by 53 places and finished tied for 43^rd.

            As Davies' season comes to an end, it also closes the book on a championship campaign for the East Tennessee State Buccaneers, who won their 17^th Southern Conference Championship and returned to NCAA competition in 2005. While Davies was the individual sparkplug for the team, freshmen Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland) and Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) helped to comprise a youthful core that is sure to make the Bucs a team to beat as they join the Atlantic Sun Conference beginning in 2005-06.

            Davies will now turn his attention to international play, as he is scheduled to compete for the European team in the Palmer Cup June 8-9 in Wisconsin.