Men's Golf finishes 8th at SAC Championships

HICKORY, N.C. -- The Coker men finished in eighth place Tuesday in the 2023 South Atlantic Conference Golf Championships contested at Lake Hickory Club.

"We just managed seven birdies today, and that just doesn't get it done when you're playing in arguably the best men's golf conference in the country," head coach John Hackney said. "Our guys are so good and had a solid season in so many ways, but we didn't have a single under-par round in three days, which is hard to believe. We didn't make enough putts the last two rounds and did not take advantage of the par 5s."

Nationally 30th-ranked Coker shot 293 (5-over) in the first round and was tied for fourth, but rounds of 301 and 300 in windy conditions Monday and Tuesday caused the Cobras to fall in the standings. Top-ranked Anderson won for the seventh time in nine tournaments, carding scores of 280-280-285 (19-under par) to beat runner-up and host Lenoir-Rhyne (+4) by 23 shots. Anderson freshmen Alejandro DeCastro won medalist honors in convincing fashion with rounds of 67-68-72 (-9).

Coker junior Jonathan Hallinger barely missed the 10-man All-Tournament team after firing scores of 72-73-74 (+3), which tied for 13th. He notched one birdie and one par on his first nine holes Tuesday, then reeled off six straight pars on his back nine before a bogey and double bogey on his 16th and 17th holes.

"Johnny really played well this week," Hackney said. "If you take away about four bad swings, he could have challenged for medalist honors."

Senior Killian Ryan shot 74-76-73 (+7) to finish tied for 24th. Ryan has a good chance to advance as an individual to the NCAA South/Southeast Regional in Florida in a few weeks while the Cobras will likely just miss getting a team bid.

Junior Caleb Tidd carded scores of 75-74-76 (+9) for 29th place in the 60-player field. Senior Fred Tindale shot 72-78-78 (+12) and sophomore Derek McGlaughlin contributed scores of 75-83-77 (+19).

Tindale was awarded the prestigious Elite 23 Award after the tournament for having the highest GPA (3.88) among the championship participants, giving the Cobras a sweep of those awards since Jenna Werle secured the same trophy at the Women's SAC Championships two weeks ago.

"This a tremendous honor for Fred, who is an elite student-athlete, outstanding leader and overall great guy," Hackney said. "He will go down as one the best players in school history and will be missed!"

This group of Cobras is all over the school golf record books, but Hackney said they are all disappointed about not performing better this week to secure an NCAA bid.

"We had a really good fall and a solid spring, but just weren't able to roll in enough putts the last two rounds this week, which was frustrating," Hackney said.  "When you hit good shots and then don't convert, it's hard to create any momentum, which was the case for us. This is a great group of guys who really worked hard at their craft, so I really wanted to watch them contend for a spot in the NCAA Championships, but it looks like we let that slip away."