The Swingin’ Landsharks are double-dippin’ in the Southeast

The last time we saw our heroes, they were coming off a solid third place team performance at the Wisconsin Badger Invitational, the team continued their tour of the Big Ten with a jaunt over to the Windy City to play the Windon Memorial Classic, hosted by Northwestern. The team had a decidedly different look from week one to week two as the squad went all wet behind the ears by inserting true Freshmen Veeti Mahonen into a lineup that already had three Sophomores.

Day one was a 36-hole affair that saw the young birdie makers run up the leader board by the time the full day of golf was settled. Sarut Vongchaisit led the way with rounds of 68 and 69 for a 2-round score of -5, good enough for a tie for 2nd overall after day one. Jackson Suber continued his stellar play with a 70-71 effort and a -1 score, good enough for a T-7 heading into the final day.

Jack Gnam and Chip (a golfer, that’s his name) Getz rounded out the solid first day efforts with overall scores of Even and +2, respectively. The team found itself with a -6 total, good enough for solo second behind Notre Dame (-10) with only the final round to play.

Day two arrived with the team having a very legitimate shot to make a run at winning the tournament. Jackson Suber did his part to make sure the Rebels were in contention by carding a final round 69, a nice -2 for the day and -3 for the tournament. That finish propelled Suber to an individual another top five finish, his second in as many weeks. Jack Gnam (who hereforto shall be known as “The Jack Gnammer”) put in a solid last days work as well, posting a -1 (70). Gnammer finished -1 for the tournament, giving him his first top 10 of his season and his career.

Heading into the day, Sarut Vongchaisit was poised to potentially take the individual title, but a few bogeys down the stretch saw “Root” drop down the leader board to tie Gnam at -1. If you are scoring at home that’s 3 Rebels in the Top 10. Decent. Freshmen Veeti Mahonen posted a solid final round of Even (71) and a final score of +3 (a top 25 score), while the Senior Getz faltered a bit in the final frame, ending his tournament at +7 and T-42.

The solid finale gave the squad sure footing in the team standings. The final team score of -5 was good enough to hold on to the runner-up slot, finishing six shots ahead of the third place South Florida team. Notre Dame, for the second week in a row, ran away with the team title after posting a collective score of -10.

This Week’s Tournaments: Jerry Pate Invitational and the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate

When: October 7-8 and October 11-13

Where: Vestavia Hills, Ala. and Jonesborough, Tenn.

Golfweek Rankings: The boys are MOVIN’! Team Ranking: No. 25 (previously unranked); Individuals: Jackson Suber: No. 43

The Courses:

Jerry Pate Invitational: Old Overton Golf Club. A Tom Fazio/Jerry Pate collaboration that has a very stirring promotional video if you are into hype videos about dewy greens and the like. Jerry Pate seems like a random choice to have a tournament named after him, that is until you see his shot to win the US Open in 1976 while wearing some absolutely fabulous pants.

Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate: Blackthorn Club at the Ridges. That’s a lot of names for this Arthur Hills design in northeastern Tennessee. Serving as the home course for the ETSU golf team, the 7,100-yard par 72 boasts “winding canals, water challenges, and strategic bunker placement”, not to mention some totally fun looking members!

The Ole Miss Team:

Jackson Suber (Soph., Tampa, Fla.): Back-to-back Top 5 finishes in the first two tournaments of the year. Moved into the top 50 in the Golfweek Collegiate Individual Rankings.

Sarut Vongchaisit (Soph., Bangkok, Thailand): Two tournaments, two top 10’s for Root. Finished T9 in Chicago.

Chip Getz (Senior, Paradise Valley, Ariz.) The golfer named Chip had steady rounds on Day 1 in Chicago. Finished in a tie for 42nd.

Jack Gnam (Soph., Ridgeland, Miss.): The Jack Gnammer posted his first Top 10 of the year and his career in Chicago. Finished at -1 in a tie for 9th.

Veeti Mahonen (Freshmen, Kirkonummi, Finland): Not a bad showing for the freshmen’s first time out. Rounds of 72-73-71 got him a Top 25 placement in his first career tournament.

The Fields:

Jerry Pate Intercollegiate: No. 31 Colorado State, No. 43 Alabama, Air Force, No. 13 Arkansas, Auburn, No. 19 BYU, Charlotte, Minnesota, Princeton, Samford, UAB

The Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate: No. 34 ETSU, Mizzou, Virginia, No. 23 Penn Sate, No. 5 Louisville, Virginia Tech, Coastal Carolina, No. 46 East Carolina, UNC-Wilmington, VCU, Furman, Villanova

Top individuals who are playing for second:

Jerry Pate Intercollegiate: No. 1 Peter Kuest — BYU, No. 34 Trey Tobias — Charlotte, No. 40 William Buhl — Arkansas, No. 52 Rhett Rasmussen — BYU, No. 85 Julian Perico — Arkansas, No. 100 Mason Overstreet — Arkansas

Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate: No. 10 John Murphy — Louisville, No. 12 Matthias Schmid — Louisville, No. 51 Keegan De Lange — Louisville, No. 83 Zack Taylor — Coastal

If you want to follow the action: Golfstat for the Jerry Pate and Bank of Tennessee as well as Ole Miss Men’s Golf Twitter are your best bests to follow along with the action.

Next Tournament: October 27-29, Hoakalei Country Club Invitational, Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Tough draw to end the Fall season. You hate to see the kids suffer like this.