Sunday, March 01, 2009

RIO GRANDE, P.R. (March 1, 2009) - Despite facing a field that included four of the top six teams in the national rankings, the ETSU men's golf team continued its consistent improvement at the Puerto Rico Classic, lowering its team score for the second straight round to move up two spots and finish tied for ninth Sunday in the third and final round at the Rio Mar Country Club.

With junior Seamus Power (Waterford, Ireland) posting the team's only sub-70 round of the event with a 4-under 68 in the third round, the Buccaneers finished with a team score of 289 on the day for a three-round total of 877 (297-291-287). Power finished tied for 21^st  at 1-under-par 215 for the event, while Georgia's Hudson Swafford and Texas' Dylan Fritelli tied for individual medalist honors at 12-under 204.

In the team competition, No. 1-ranked Georgia ran away with the trophy by 12 strokes over second place and No. 6-ranked Clemson. The Bulldogs finished the tournament at 38-under 826 (283-270-273).

Along with Power's strong showing, the Bucs got another solid outing from sophomore Rhys Enoch (Cornwall, England), who finished tied for 30^th after posting a 1-over 73 on Sunday and ending the event at 2-over 218. Meanwhile, sophomore Paul O'Kane (Castledawson, Northern Ireland) had a strong effort on Sunday with a 1-under 71 to move to a tie for 52^nd on the leaderboard.

The Bucs will return to action March 8 in the General Hackler Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C. For more on ETSU men's golf throughout the season, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's golf link.