APSU Sports Information
Sapphire, NC – Austin Peay State University (APSU) men’s golf team put together as consistent at 54-hole performance as any team in the field at the Hummingbird Intercollegiate at the Country Club of Sapphire Valley, which wrapped up Tuesday.
The Govs followed up back-to-back rounds of 284 with a one-under 283 in Tuesday’s final round, solidifying their seventh-place finish in the 15-team field.
The Govs were one of just four teams in the field to finish at par or better each day, alongside champion Georgia Southern (822, 30-under for the tournament), runner-up Morehead State (835, 17-under) and third-place Florida Atlantic (843, nine-under).
With back-to-back rounds at even-par and a third at one-under, it should come as no surprise that the Govs finished second in the field with 169 pars, behind only Chattanooga. Junior Alex Vegh led the Govs with 35, but sophomores Chase Korte and Garrett Whitfield and junior Michael Busse were one behind him with 34 each.
After alternating rounds in the 60s yesterday, Korte and Busse both posted rounds below 70 on the final day. Korte (69) and Busse (68) wound up tied for 14th at 209, getting there in different ways on Tuesday; Korte was one-under on the front nine and the back nine to close his stay in Sapphire Valley, while Busse was one-under through the front nine and a white-hot 33 on the back, amplified by four birdies.
After an opening-round 81 left him with a lot of ground to make up, junior Sean Butscher battled through the adversity and rallied with a one-over 72 in the final round, equaling Busse’s back-nine 33.
Butscher, Busse, Korte and sophomore Garrett Whitfield each birdied the par-5 No. 14 in the final round, which helped Whitfield to a final-round 74; he also shot an even-par 36 on the front nine and carded a 217 (70-73-74) for the tournament.
Vegh shot 218 (72-72-74)—in addition to leading the Govs in pars, Vegh set the tone on the par-3 No. 3, a hole that gave many teams in the tournament fits; the Govs were one-over on that hole for the entire tournament, with Vegh one of four Govs to shoot par on it in all three rounds.
Austin Peay will take a week off from competition before returning to action in Dickson, Tennessee—site of the 2018 F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate at Greystone Golf Club, October 15th-16th.
