OSUMG: Buckeyes Finish 6th at Aggie Invitational
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
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(Team photo and tournament information courtesy of Ohio State Athletic Department.)
In league with extraordinary gentlemen.
The Buckeyes traveled to Texas for the Aggie Invitational Saturday and Sunday. The tournament is played at the Traditions Golf Club in Bryan, TX. As you’ve probably guessed, the event is hosted by Texas A&M. The course will play to 7,146 yards and a par 72.
(That’s a fair length golf course). It has a
USGA course rating of 74.6 and a slope of 151.
(This is also a tough golf course. The highest slope rating assigned by the USGA is 155. With a rating of 151, Traditions is a very tough course. By comparison, my “home” course has a slope/rating of 72/123. Not even close in difficulty)
The format a three round, 54 hole event of ‘play five count four’, where a school fields 5 players, and the low 4 scores for each round are counted. This event has a fifteen team field: No. 23 Arkansas, No. 28 Baylor, Charlotte, Kent State, No. 18 LSU,
Ohio State, No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 12 Oklahoma State, Michigan, New Mexico State, North Texas, No. 27 Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UC Riverside, UTSA. (The rankings are Golfstat Top-30 rankings)
The participating players participating were: ,
Tee-k Kelly, Will Grimmer, Clark Engle,
Caleb Ramirez and
Josh Wick. Clark is back in the starting lineup, replacing Sean Busch for this event.
Overall
The Buckeyes yet again rode a strong final round and held on to 6th place. The team total of 884 (+20). As well as they played, they couldn’t make up any ground. However, this was a much better scoring performance than their previous event. And, it was on a much tougher course. Hats off to the Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes were led by Clark Engle’s 216 (E). His score also placed in in
8th place, another Top -10 finish for him. His four team mates were; Tee-K Kelly 219 (+3), Will Grimmer 222 ( +6), Caleb Ramirez 233 (+17) and Josh Wick 238 (+22).
This was an encouraging finish. They had a good first round, a horrible second round and, again, a
very good third round.
Player round by round scores, below:
Aggie Invitational Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Total To Par
Team 292 301 291 884 20
Tee-K Kelly 72 73 74 219 3
Will Grimmer 72 79 71 222 6
Clark Engle 72 73 71 216 0
Caleb Ramirez 76 76 81 233 17
Josh Wick 80 83 75 238 22
4 13 3 20
First Round
The Buckeyes began their rounds on hole #10 and quickly dismantled the back nine. At the turn they were sitting at -2 and in 1st place. However, their 2nd nine wasn’t as sharp, they shot a +6. After making the turn, their first hour of play or so (5 holes) wasn’t sharp – they were +7. However, they did throw 5 birdies on the scorecard by the end of the nine to salvage their efforts. By the end of the round, they shot a team score of 292 (+4) and were in 3rd place. This strong finish to their round placed them only 1 stroke out of 2nd place and 9 strokes out of the lead.
The Buckeyes were led by
Tee-k Kelly,
Will Grimmer and
Clark Engle; all shooting even par 72’s.
Caleb Ramirez contributed to the team score with a 76 (+4) and
Josh Wick shot 80 (+8).
Tee-K got out of the blocks fast with a birdie on his first hole, then went on a birdie-eagle-birdie tea on #14-#16 to get to -5 for the round! He ran into some misfortune with a quadruple bogey 8 on the par-4 4th hole. He did mark down an eagle and 4 birdies on the day, so aside from a bad swing (or two) he had an exceptional round.
Will “The Thrill” took us on another fun ride in his opening nine, playing his first six holes in -2 with
4 birdies/2 bogeys. He did level things out a bit with 6 pars / 1 birdie / 2 bogeys on his 2nd nine.
Clark was back in action after a week off and the time off seemed to help. He recorded 3 birdies/3 bogeys in an otherwise smooth, well played round. This was a solid, stabilizing round that he, and the team needed in the 1st round.
Caleb rolled through his round with a handful of bogeys and a birdie.
It wasn’t a spectacular round, but he had nothing worse than bogey and he made a lot of pars.
Josh’s opening nine 39 (+3) included a double bogey and 2 birdies. Unfortunately, his back nine score of 41 (+5) was littered with 5 bogeys.
For the round, the Buckeyes had
1 eagle, 15 birdies, 49 pars, 23 bogeys 1 double bogey and 1 quadruple bogey. This was a good opening round. On to the 2nd round…
Second Round
This will be short. Again, the afternoon round was a mess. The Buckeyes shot a team total 301 (+13), sliding them down two spots into 6th place after this round. They dropped from one stroke out of 2nd place after round one to 13 strokes after round two. At this point, they are in a reasonable shot to climb into fourth place to end the tournament.
The Buckeyes were led by
Tee-k Kelly and
Clark Engle with 73’s (+1).
Caleb Ramirez shot a 76 (+4).
Will Grimmer shot a 79 (+7) to round out the team score.
Josh Wick shot an 83 (+11).
Tee-K had 2 birdies/3 bogeys in his round. His 13 pars made the afternoon fairly smooth sailing.
Will’s took us on another fun ride in his opening nine, opening with four pars, then he was +6 over his next 5 holes, with scores ranging from birdie to quadruple bogey. We had a little bit of everything for that stretch. He did “stabilize the patient” with a +1 on his back nine, which was a well needed recovery.
Clark had a very good start (-1) after ten holes, double bogeyed the par-3 2nd hole, then finished his next 7 holes in +1. Aside from his glitch on #2, he played 17 holes in -1. That is
very good golf.
Caleb began his round with 7 consecutive pars and stood at even par through 12 holes. However, he triple bogeyed the par-4 4th hole, then completed his next five holes in +1. Aside from
his glitch on #4, he played 17 holes in +1: a very solid effort.
Josh’s opening nine 38 (+2) was similar to his 1st round. Unfortunately, his back nine score of 45 (+9) was a bit worse, driven by two triple bogeys.
For the round, the Buckeyes combined for; 9 birdies, 59 pars, 16 bogeys, 2 double bogeys, 3 triple bogeys and 1 quadruple bogey.
This is the second third consecutive tournament the Buckeyes failed to capitalize on a good/very good opening round by less-than-sharp play in the 2nd round. It wasn’t general horrific play, is appeared to be a handful of ill-played shots that contributed to high scores that couldn’t be offset with birdies. There really isn’t much a coach can say after this sort of round. Probably the best advice would be “Relax, put that round behind us, enjoy dinner, get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow.” On to the 3rd round…
Third Round
It appears the Buckeyes settled in and reverted back to their opening round form. Beginning play on hole #1, the Buckeyes raced to a front 9 team score
-4 which moved them up two positions, for the moment, to 4th place. The team shot 12 birdies on the front nine, three more than the entire 2nd round. Whatever coaches Moseley/Smith gave as a pre-round speech seemed to work. Things didn’t go as well on their back-9, but the team still shot their best round of the tournament. The team shot a team 3rd round score of 291 (+3) to retain their position in T-6th place. The Buckeyes were led by
Clark Engle and
Will Grimmer with 71’s (-1).73 (+1). T
ee-k Kelly 74 (+2) and
Josh Wick 75 (+3) rounded out the team scoring.
Caleb Ramirez shot a final round 81 (+9).
Tee-K teeing off on the 8th hole, he got out of the blocks fast with 5 consecutive pars before going
eagle-birdie on the next two holes. Tee-k was sitting at level par until he finished with a birdie on his 18th hole to go sub-par. This was Tee-k’s second consecutive tournament where he scored under par for the final round. I think that Coaches Moseley and Smith need to convince Tee-k that
every round is a final round…
Will thrilled us with two “runs” during the run. The first run was spectacular; he recorded 4 consecutive birdies on holes #5 – #8. Simply outstanding. His second run was less so; he closed with three consecutive bogeys. Will and Clark (below) were the only Buckeyes with “clean” (nothing worse than bogey). His, his -1 round was a very well played round.
Clark continued his steady play with 4 birdies/3 bogeys/11 pars. His round didn’t have the “thrill factor”, but a sub-par round is a very well played round.
Caleb had a
great start, sitting at -1 through 12 holes. Then all hell broke loose; over the next 45 minutes or so, he had a triple and a quadruple bogey to go +8 over a four hole stretch. This was his 2nd consecutive final round of shooting in the 8o’s. We might be dealing with fatigue with the young lad.
Josh was the first Buckeye on the course and got the off to a good start with a birdie on his first hole. He did stumble with a quadruple bogey on the 387 yard par-4, 4th hole. However he did score two more birdies, including one on his even par back nine. That was a solid round of golf. Well done.
For the round, the Buckeyes combined for; 18 birdies, 53 pars, 14 bogeys and 5 ‘others’. This was another very good finishing round.
Thoughts
We are now developing a trend with this team; good 1st round scoring in the 1st round, bad scoring in the 2nd round then terrific golf in the final round. Clark’s insertion back into the lineup provided a steadying influence.
They did a nice job of game management in the 1st round, scoring only one double bogey and one “other” (a score worse than double bogey). The 2nd round wasn’t so good; 2 double bogeys and 3 “others”. This is where the tournament got away from them. They rebounded nicely in the 3rd round, but 2 doubles and 2 “others” dampened any chance they had to improve their standing.
Sifting through the chaff, here is a “what happened” snap-shot. They played the par 3’s well, scoring an average 3.27 (+16) ranking them 5th. They played the par 4’s ‘sort of OK’, to an average of 4.22 per hole, +33 to par, ranking them 7th. They played the par 5’s to an average of 4.988 per hole, a total of -1 to par, ranking 7th.
In terms of “to par” scoring, Ohio State recorded 160 pars, placing them in 5th position in that measure. They recorded 42 birdies, placing them 8th. They scored 1 eagle (Tee-k!), placing them tied for for 2nd place.
The team still needs to level out the 2nd round play. Obviously, this is not a profound observation that coaches Moseley/Smith are unaware of. This final round finish was a good performance to build for the rest of the Spring. The next couple months are going to be fun.
Courtesy Traditions Club.
The 387 yard par 4, 4th hole was a thorn in Buckeyes’ side this weekend. It was the site of Tee-k’s quadruple bogey in 1st round, Caleb’s triple bogey in 2nd round and Josh’s quadruple bogey in 3rd round. However, Tee-k and Caleb did birdie it in the 3rd round. Trees to right of tee box, trees and hazard to the left. You’d better be straight.
Up Next
The OSUMG team will return to Columbus for the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate, played at the Ohio State Scarlet Course. The event runs April 9th-10th.
Go Buckeyes!
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OSUMG: Buckeyes Finish 6th at Aggie Invitational appeared first on
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His ninth of the year ties him for the B1G lead. 
