Headline: Local Collegiate Golfers Represent the Bay State Well As the 2017 NCAA Spring Season Kicks Off Across the Country
For Immediate Release: March 21, 2017
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| From top: Brendan Hunter, Jimmy Hervol and Matt Cowgill are three of a handful of golfers who are off to a fast start this spring. |
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Norton, MA — Every season, the MGA is well-represented in its many state amateur tournaments and USGA qualifiers by collegiate players in the Division I, Division II and Division III levels.
While many of those players represent colleges that allow for competition all year long, others have been forced to wait a little longer to get back on the links due to the weather conditions.
However, with most student-athletes’ spring semesters nearly halfway over and the spring season, at least on the calendar, having technically started, almost all players have seen their spring seasons started.
As a result, the MGA has decided to highlight a few of those individuals who’ve started their 2017 spring seasons.
2016 Massachusetts Amateur Champion
St. Thomas Aquinas College
Brendan Hunter (Red Tail GC), of Groton, began the spring half of his senior season at St. Thomas Aquinas College on Friday, March 17, as the Spartans took first place at the Brown Golf Intercollegiate Tournament at North Carolina’s Foxfire Resort and Golf Course. Hunter, the 2016 Massachusetts Amateur Champion, shot a two-round score of 5-over 149 (72-77-149) to place T6, the highest score amongst his team. His top score helped lead his team to the first place against the field of 12 schools competing in the tournament.
2016 Massachusetts Amateur Quarterfinalist
Davidson College
Lang, the defending Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year who advanced to this past year’s Massachusetts Amateur Championship quarterfinals, has played in three tournaments to date, registering top-10 finishes in both the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate and the Seahawk Intercollegiate. He carded a 54-hole total of 218 (70-72-76 - 218) to help the Wildcats to a T11 finish in the spring opener, then followed with a team best 222 (70-77-75 - 222) at the Tiger Invitational in Auburn, Alabama. Most recently, Lang recorded his third top-20 finish of the season, placing T17 at the Seahawk Intercollegiate that was hosted by UNC Wilmington at the Country Club of Landfall. His three-round score was 74-72-79-225.
2016 Massachusetts Amateur Quarterfinalist
Boston College
Naumec, a member of GreatHorse and sophomore for the Eagles, opened the 2017 spring season by winning the Pizza Hut Pat Hicks Invitational in St. George, Utah, netting his second win of the year and his fourth-straight top five finish. The Wilbraham, Mass. native, who also won the 2014 Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship, shot 8-under 136 (67-69) to take home the individual title. At BC’s most recent tournament, the Pinehurst Intercollegiate held at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, Naumec finished T4 in the event, finishing the three-round total at 7-over 200 (72-71-77 – 200) as the squad finished eighth out of 14 schools.
2015 Massachusetts Junior Amateur Champion
University of Connecticut
The sophomore Hervol, of Hopkinton, Mass., competed for the Huskies’ squad that placed first at the Loyola Invitational held in Goodyear, Arizona at the end of February. Hervol placed T23 with a 2-under 214 card (69-74-71 – 214) while fellow Mass. native Tim Umphrey placed T33, shooting an even-par 216 (76-72-68). In the Huskies second match of the spring season, Hervol finished T11 as an individual, going 9-over 225 (76-78-71 – 225) as Connecticut placed third at the Colleton River Collegiate, sponsored by Michigan State, in Bluffton, South Carolina.
2017 U.S. Four Ball Sectional Qualifier
University of Rhode Island
Rhode Island senior captain Billy Walthouse, an East Longmeadow native and regular in Massachusetts Open and Massachusetts Amateur Championships over the past few years, opened the spring season this past weekend at the UNCW Seahawk Intercollegiate, held in Wilmington, N.C. In his first round, Walthouse recorded a 1-under 71, finishing one stroke off the lead. He finished rounds two and three with matching 5-over 77 scores to finish the tournament at T17. Rhode Island, as a team, placed seventh out of the 12 teams competing.
2016 Massachusetts Amateur Public Links Champion
James Madison University
Cowgill, a junior at James Madison University and the defending Massachusetts Amateur Public Links Champion, competed in two of the teams three events to date, having seen action in the win over Liberty on January 29, and also helping the squad to a 4th place finish at the most recent Seminole Intercollegiate in Tallahassee, Florida March 10-12. Cowgill shot 76-80-156 in the season opener and then a three-round score of 79-71-73, including three birdies in his final round, to place T63 overall.
For more information on the MGA competitors, be sure to check back on mgalinks.org and follow the MGA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @mgalinks.
