(RMC Athletics release)
TEMPE, Ariz. – The 13th-ranked Rocky Mountain College men’s golf team brought home the trophy at the 2018 Frontier Conference Championship that concluded on Wednesday at the ASU Karsten Golf Club. Rocky finished the 54-hole evet with 874 strokes to win by 21 shots.
Leading by 10 over Lewis-Clark State College to start the day, the Battlin’ Bears were the only team to break 300 on Wednesday with a 289. Rocky led the field with 59 birides during the tournament while adding 134 pars.
The Battlin’ Bears finished the week at 21-under par on the par-5 holes and they led the field in par-3 and par-4 scoring.
The race for the individual medalist honors was tight with the top five finishing within one stroke. Rocky’s Michael Tait used a final round 73 to finish atop the leaderboard with 220 total strokes. He made two birdies on the back nine on Wednesday to sneak out the one-shot victory.
Tait finished the week leading the field in par-4 scoring with a 4.03 scoring average. He carded 11 birdies and 30 pars to win the title.
Reece Nilsen had the best round in the field on Wednesday by shooting 69. That helped him to 221 for the week and a tie for second-place. Is final round featured six birdies and one eagle – Rocky’ lone eagle of the week – and helped him tie for the tournament lead with 13 total birdies.
Colton Murphy also tied for second at 221 after his final round of 76. He made three birdies on Wednesday to tie Nilsen for the tournament lead in that category. Murphy finished the event a 3-over on the par-4 holes and 5-over on the par-3 holes.
Mitchell Theissen and HoTae Kim each finished tied for eighth after shooting 224. Kim shot 71 on Wednesday to match his 71 from Tuesday. He was second in the field with a 3.17 scoring average on the par-3 holes.
Thiessen shot 79 in the final round and ended the week with 10 birdies.
With the win, Rocky earns an automatic invite to the NAIA National Championships that will be played at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, from May 15-18.
