ALPHARETTA, Ga. (Oct. 21, 2012) – After having freshman Adrian Meronk (Wroclaw, Poland) lead the ETSU men’s golf team in the first two rounds of the U.S. Collegiate Championship, fellow Buccaneer freshman Gudmundur Kristjansson (Reykjavik, Iceland) finished Sunday’s final round firing an impressive 4-under-par 68 at The Golf Club of Georgia – Lakeside Course.

Kristjansson gradually climbed up the leaderboard all weekend as he was sitting in a tie for 67th after the first 18 holes, but managed to tie for 20th after posting a three-round score of 4-over 220. Overall, Kristjansson just missed carding the lowest score on Sunday as Duke’s Julian Suri and eventual tournament champion, Patrick Rodgers from Stanford, both registered 67s. Kristjansson was at 5-under when the Buccaneer rookie posted his fifth birdie of the final round on the 432-yard, par-4 14th, but ended up with a bogey on the 564-yard, par-5 18th to conclude the tournament.

Rodgers, who entered the day in fourth and three shots behind Oklahoma State’s Talor Gooch, ended up winning the individual title by four shots. Rodgers, the fifth-ranked player according to Golfweek, finished the tournament at 7-under-par 209, while Gooch, Auburn’s Michael Johnson, and Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan all tied for second at 3-under 213. Pan was ranked second according to Golfweek heading into the weekend.

On the team leaderboard, No. 16/12 Georgia Tech rallied past No. 9/7 UCLA as Ollie Schniederjans posted an eagle on 18, lifting the Yellow Jackets to a one shot victory over the Bruins. Georgia Tech finished the tournament at 10-over-par 874.  

Overall, the Bucs generated their lowest round of the weekend on Sunday by totaling a 5-over 293 and finished 11th with a score of 892. In the end, ETSU placed ahead of No. 24/22 Wake Forest, No. 18/16 Kent State, No. 17 Texas A&M, and Iowa.

Meronk continued with his consistent play as he tied for 13th at 3-over 219, while sophomore Rhys Pugh (Pontypridd, Wales) ended the weekend on a positive note by carding a 1-under 71 on Sunday. Pugh was 2-over on the front nine, but closed out play with four birdies on the back – including becoming only one of 19 golfers to birdie the 183-yard, par-3 13th in the tournament.  

The tournament, which is referred to “The Masters of Collegiate Golf,” featured 11 teams ranked within the top-30 of the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings, as well as the top-30 of the Golfstat.com rankings. Individually, 29 players in the field were ranked within the top-100 of the Golfweek rankings, including five inside the top-10

The Bucs will now have the next two weeks off before closing out the fall season with a trip to Hawaii for the Warrior-Wave Invitational, which begins Monday, Nov. 5.

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