Marshall University’s men’s golf finished the first tournament of the spring season at Georgia Southern Individual Collegiate in Statesboro, Georgia. The tournament was an individual event with 17 teams and 64 players playing in the event hosted by Georgia Southern University. 

“I felt like I saw a lot of good things and a lot of things that they need to work on as well,” Coach Matt Grobe said. “The biggest thing is that you got to take all those results with a grain of salt. I think it was really good for the guys to have to overcome some adversity.”

The winner of the tournament was Jake Maples from Georgia Southern shooting six under in the entire event and shooting four under on the final day. Maples had one eagle on the first hole in the first round of the tournament and had a total of 13 birdies.

Marshall senior Cole Moore finished with the best score of the team tied for 33rd being 14 over. Moore started off the first day shooting a 73 with two birdies on the first and fifth holes. In the second round, Moore shot 74 with three birdies on the first, 11th and the 13th holes. On the final round, he shot an 83 with one birdie on the first hole. 

“I was pretty pleased with my performance,” Moore said. “The last day score was not what we hoped for, but being able to look at tougher tee shots and making a few more putts is what we are going to focus more on.” 

Followed by Moore, redshirt junior Will Straub was tied for 41st. In the first round, Straub shot 79 with one birdie on the first hole. In the second round, Straub shot one stroke better with a 78, scoring two birdies on holes five and 11. Straub’s final round kept the same momentum in the leaderboard, shooting a 77 with four birdies on holes one, two, six and nine. He finished the 54-hole round 18 over. 

Redshirt junior Cameron Root was tied for 48th shooting an 81-80-78. In the first round, Root had one birdie on hole seven, and he came back in the second round with one birdie on hole six. The final round, Root jumped four spots up the leaderboard after playing two strokes better. 

Redshirt Junior Matt Hoffman came in 63rd place shooting 85-85-87. Hoffman had a total of four birdies in the first and second rounds. 

The Herd is set to play again on Feb. 22 at the Loyola Intercollegiate in Goodyear, Arizona.

Stormy Randazzo can be contacted at [email protected].