Eagles soar to third as Hay rebounds
Carson-Newman jumped a spot to third place at the Food Lion SAC Golf Championship Monday at the Sevierville Golf Club. The Eagles were helped mightily by Gavin Hay (Glasgow, Scotland), who improved 11 strokes in round two with a 71 (-1).
Hay’s round was one of three under-par days across the board at day two for the tournament. The improvement pushed him from a tie for 37th to a tie for 15th.
The senior closed exceptionally strong, birdieing three of his final five holes. Hay seemed to be in a groove early on – loudly exclaiming, “Yes,” after drilling his opening tee shot down the middle of the fairway on the first hole.
Jonathan Kim-Moss held tight to a position in the top ten; he sits in eighth at four-over for the tournament. He shot a 77 (+5) for day two. Kim-Moss is four back of second place golfers Jamie Chapman and Raam Wasson of Lincoln Memorial, both of whom are at even par for the tournament.
However, Kim-Moss has work to do to catch the tournament leader. The Railsplitters’ Conor Froning is eight-under and on pace to set a new SAC tournament record. Froning needs to shoot a 72 tomorrow to match Newberry’s Ben Lown’s three-day 208 – the lowest score in SAC tournament history.
The Railsplitters (576) lead the pack and are even-par as a team. C-N (610) is 34 strokes back of the leaders, but just seven behind second place Wingate (603). The Eagles have a slight edge on places four through six. Lenoir-Rhyne (611) sits a stroke behind C-N, while Tusculum (615) is five back and Brevard 10 (620).
Rafael Jackson (Rutledge, Tenn.) helped out a strong complement of performance for day two for the Eagles with a 73 (+1). He’s six-over for the tournament and in a tie for ninth.
The Eagles tee off as a part of the final grouping Tuesday with Wingate and LMU at 10:45 a.m.
3 Carson-Newman Men’s Golf 309 301 610 +34
8 Jonathan Kim-Moss 71 77 148 +4
T 9 Rafael Jackson 77 73 150 +6
T 15 Gavin Hay 82 71 153 +9
T 31 Chase McCown 79 80 159 +15
46 Michael Horenkamp 87 86 173 +29
