Saturday, May 16, 2009

Mercer men's golfer Bill Jones III saved his best for last, posting his lowest score of the NCAA Southeast Regional at the RedTail Golf Club course in Sorrento, Fla., on Saturday.

The Conyers, Ga., native carded a final round one-under par, 70, to finish the three-day in a four-way tie for 40th with an overall score of 214 (71-73-70). He played even-par through his first four holes on Saturday, but ran into trouble by notching bogeys at the 14th and 16th holes, both par fours, but responded by posting three consecutive birdies at the 17th, 18th and 1st holes, reaching one-under on the day.

Atlantic Sun Conference Champion Campbell shot 288 on Saturday and finished the event at 10-over-par 862 strokes, 26 ahead of 14th-place Loyola (Md.).

Zak Drescher finished in a tie for 10th individually and Campbell University placed 13th in the team standings after Saturday's final round of the NCAA Southeast Regional men's golf championship at RedTail Golf Club.

A sophomore from Landisville, Pa., Drescher shot an even-par 71 on Saturday, playing the final 12 holes two-under and finished the event at six-under-par 207 (70-66-71). He ended the event just three strokes away from qualifying for the NCAA Championship.

Having to start and stop play several times over the last three days due to severe weather conditions, the ETSU men's golf team was never able to make a move in the NCAA Central Regional hosted by Western Kentucky University at The Club at Olde Stone.

Needing to finish in the Top 5 to reach the NCAA Championships for the 18th time in program history, the Bucs continued second round play Saturday morning just four strokes out of fifth place. However, when the second round was completed, the Buccaneers were unable to make up any ground and the same was true during the third and final round later in the day.

No. 31-ranked ETSU ultimately finished the day 11th on the team leaderboard, 16 strokes out of fifth place, which went to No. 42 Duke after the Blue Devils posted a team score of 17-over-par 881 for the three-day event. Meanwhile, defending national champion and 19th-ranked UCLA bested the entire 14-team field, capturing the team championship by seven strokes over No. 6 Washington.