Ege, Chartier in top-20 following 36 holes; Bucs sit tied for third at Pinehurst No. 2

PINEHURST, N.C. (March 6, 2023) – Led by Mats Ege (Kristiansand, Norway) and Remi Chartier (Montreal, Canada), the ETSU men’s golf team sits tied for third-place following the first two rounds of the Wake Forest Invitational on Monday from historic Pinehurst No. 2.

Ege, one of 12 golfers in the field to post a score of even-par or better through 36 holes, is tied for seventh at even-par 140. Ege carded a 1-under 69 in round one and posted a 1-over 71 in the afternoon. In the opener, the Buccaneer leader registered three birdies, 13 pars and two bogeys, while Ege had more of an up-and-down round in the afternoon. Ege bogeyed three of his first five holes, but bounced back to even par for the round following birdies on the par-4, 387-yard No. 3 and the par-5, 576-yard No. 5. However, Ege gave those two strokes back with a double-bogey on the par-4, 424-yard No. 7, before finishing with four pars and a birdie to end the day.

Chartier strung together back-to-back rounds of 71 and sits tied for 16th at 2-over-par 142. Chartier finished round one with consecutive birdies, while posting two birdies, 13 pars and three bogeys in round two. Chartier is one the leaders in par-3 scoring as he registered an average of 2.63 in the two rounds on Monday.

SMU’s Nathan Petronzio holds the 36-hole lead at 4-under-par 136, while Ben James and Bryan Lee of Virginia are tied for second at 3-under-par 137. Two golfers are tied for fourth at 2-under and Iowa’s Ronan Kleu is in sixth at 1-under.

No. 15 Virginia and No. 49 UNCG are tied for the team lead at 4-over-par 564.

The Bucs are tied for third with No. 29 Northwestern at 14-over-par 574. As a group, ETSU leads the field with 122 pars; however, the Blue and Gold only registered 17 birdies – the third-lowest total among the 12 teams. With that said, ETSU sits ahead No. 33 Wake Forest and No. 31 Duke by three shots and No. 43 Clemson by 21 strokes.

ETSU will be grouped with UNCG and Virginia in Tuesday’s final round. The Bucs will tee off from No. 1 starting at 8:50 a.m.

Fans can follow live scoring via Golfstat.com. In addition, live tweets will be available by following the Bucs on Twitter @ETSU_MGolf.

For more information on Buccaneer men’s golf, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s golf page.