Murray State University Athletics
Will Cox Seeking OVC Golf Individual Championship After Second Round 70.
4/24/2006 5:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
After a second round 299, a fourth league title is unlikely for the Murray State Racers at the O'Reilly OVC Men's Golf Championship at the Country Club of Paducah. The Racers find themselves 18 shots behind leader
MSU head coach Eddie Hunt had high hopes coming into the season ending finale.
“We didn't get much from our two All-OVC players, Kyle Shirley and Michael Craft,” Hunt said. “That's golf though, we just haven't played well as a team. And to win this title you have to be hitting on all cylinders to win the championship.”
The Racers are in sixth place after 36 holes of the 54-hole tournament with a total score of 599. EKU leads with a 581, eight shots ahead of second place Tennessee Tech with a score of 589. Tennessee-Martin is in third with a total of 591, Morehead State's 592 is fourth and Jacksonville State's 595 is fifth.
The bright spot for the Racers is the play of senior Will Cox, a native of
Cox played the front nine even par with a 36. He scored birdies at the par-5 first and par-3 third holes, but had a bogey in the middle at the second hole and another one at the seventh hole. He played a four-hole stretch from the 12th through the 15th three under with birdies at the 12th, 14th and 15th. It all added up to a two-under 70.
MSU has not had an OVC individual championship since Brandon Henson in 2001. The Racers have eight total individual titles.
“I got things going, made a putt on 12 that you don't anticipate making,” Cox said. “I only had one bad swing all day and that came on 13.”
Cox was paired with
“We fed off each other,” Cox said. “If we had played best ball, we would've birdied the first six holes and shot 12-under, it was fun playing with them.”
“Will has had an excellent senior year,” Hunt said. “I think he's one of those kids that has improved each year at MSU and he's peaking right now.”
Kyle Shirley's 78 in round two bounced him down to 23rd place. MSU's other scores included Nick Griffin with a 75, Jamie Frazier with a 76 and Michael Craft with a 78.
Tournament Notes:
With the weather forecast calling for rain most of the day, if not all day Tuesday, consideration was taken after today's round on a plan in case all 18 holes of the final round cannot be completed.
Director of OVC Championships, Ron English met with all the coaches after the round and they decided to leave themselves the choice of either calling the event after 45 holes (Playing nine in the morning) if the weather gets bad. It also means that the players could be allowed to life-clean and place their golf balls in the second nine if conditions warrant.
“It's hard to tell what's going to happen, sometimes in golf you can still play as long as the greens aren't under water,” Hunt said.
“We better bring our rain suits, because the forecast says it's going to rain all day,” Hunt added. “The guys have been playing in cold, wet weather all spring, so they're used to it.”
With Will Cox vying for the OVC individual title it's a good time to review the Racers champion list: The last MSU player to win the OVC title was Brandon Henson in 2001.
1962 Billy Graham
1963 Billy Graham
1965 Ron Acree
1971 Chris Pigott
1977 Kevin Kleir
1987 Chris Carlson
1996 Adam Grogan
2001 Brandon Henson
