Racers Fall At OVC Championship - Newcomb Named OVC Golfer Of The Year

Monday, April 23

Dickson, Tenn.

Murray State

Greystone Golf Club

Racers Fall At OVC Championship - Newcomb Named OVC Golfer Of The Year

4/28/2012 6:23:00 PM | Men's Golf

Results

The resilient Murray State Men's Golf squad made another run at the Ohio Valley Conference Championship, but came up five shots short after they had erased a 10-shot deficit at the start of the final round at Greystone Golf Club in Dickson, Tenn.

The Racers finished the event with scores of 293-2988-285=866 to finish third behind second place Austin Peay (280-295-287=862) and champion Jacksonville State (286-285-290=861).

“I couldn't be any happier with our team than I am right now,” MSU Head Coach Eddie Hunt said. “We showed a lot grit and determination all week and today again we had to fight back to the front, but we just couldn't close it out.”

After coming back from 13 shots down starting the second round on Friday to take the lead at one point, the Racers were behind leader Jacksonville State by 10 starting Saturday's final round, but managed another rally. MSU quickly cut the lead to four and took the lead on the back-nine.

Patrick Newcomb led the charge for MSU with a final round 5-under-par 67 to finish the event at 213 and a spot in third place, three strokes behind medalist Anthony Bradley of APSU at 210. After the tournament, Newcomb was named the OVC Golfer of the Year. He led the league in scoring average, won three times and had seven top-5 finishes.

“I'm very proud of Patrick,” Hunt said. “Out of all the players I've coached over the years, he has to be the one that always has more confidence than anyone else. He just believes he's going to play good and he believes that he always has a shot to win. Even though he started the day well back of the lead today, he still thought he could win and that propelled our team forward and we almost got it done.”

MSU has won the last three OVC Golfer of the Year awards as Patrick Newcomb follows his brother Nick (2010) and Cameron Carrico last season (2011). MSU now has nine award winners of the top award in OVC Golf.

The rest of the MSU team gave a good account of themselves over the 54-hole event. Senior William Hunt, playing in his first league championship, brought home a ninth place finish in what is likely his best event in his four seasons at a Racer. Hunt took home ninth place with scores of 72-71-73=216.

“I can't say enough about William,” Hunt said. “He's always had the game to play at a high level and this week he kept his composure and really played terrific golf. We don't have a chance to win today like we did without William's great play.”
Hunter York placed 11^th in the field of 45 competitors with scores of 73-71-71=217, while Tyler Brown had scores of 73-76-74=223 to place 22^nd. Dustin Gosser placed 29^th with scores of 76-73-77=226.

The rest of the OVC field was made up by: Eastern Kentucky (871) in fourth place, with UT Martin (874), Eastern Illinois (887), Morehead State (889), Tennessee Tech (910) and Tennessee State (911).