Sunday, November 07, 2004

ROCKY FACE, Ga. (Nov. 7, 2004) - In his previous two tournaments of the fall season, Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) finished second and tied for third. This weekend, he finally came out on top.

Firing a final round score of 73 on Sunday and finishing at 1-over-par for the event, Davies bested second-place finisher Luke List of Vanderbilt by one stroke to capture individual medalist honors in the Carpet Capital Collegiate at the Farm Golf Club. Davies' efforts also bolstered a strong final round for the Buccaneers, who posted a 292 on Sunday and picked up their third-straight Top 5 finish.

"Every tournament this fall I've been in contention and it's nice to finally break through," said Davies, who recently finished 25^th in the World Amateur Championships. "Obviously, this is a great achievement, but I'm really more pleased with my consistency all year so far. I just want to keep that up in the spring."

Longtime ETSU head coach Fred Warren said this is arguably the most impressive individual championship for the Bucs since former standout Keith Nolan capture the 1997 Preview championship.

"Because of the strength of this field, it's got to be pretty close to what Keith Nolan accomplished in 1997," said Warren, who pointed out that 14 of the 18 teams in the event were ranked in the Top 30 nationally and that 17 preseason All-Americans were in the field. "Rhys just played a very good, solid round. The course was playing very tough and even-par was a great score today."

Davies was not the only Buccaneer to come through on the final day.

Coming into Sunday's final round in eighth place on the team leaderboard, the Bucs got sterling even-par scores from both senior Cennydd Mills (Cardiff, Wales) and freshman Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland). Meanwhile, freshman Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) enjoyed a solid round of 3-over-par 75. Mills finished the event tied for 31^st, while McNamara and Shaw finished tied for 51^st and 66^th, respectively.

Georgia took home the team championship by two strokes over Wake Forest, and the Bucs finished 16 strokes off the Bulldogs' pace. However, the Bucs did best schools such as Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Clemson, Auburn, TCU, Duke and N.C. State.

This was the final event of the fall season for the Bucs.

Team Leader Board

Course:The Farm Golf Club: The Farm
Par 72 - 7010 yards

Player Leader Board