Lauren Conway
Freshman Joey Lenane follows through on a stoke during the Wolfpack Intercollegiate on Oct. 16, 2022 at Lonnie Poole Golf Course. Lenane tied for 33rd with a final 54-hole score of 6-over. NC State tied for second overall.
NC State men’s golf traveled to Lexington, Kentucky for the Cullen Brown Collegiate, placing third — its highest finish of the season thus far.
After 36 holes on Monday, the final 18 holes on Tuesday were cancelled due to a band of thunderstorms in the area.
The Wolfpack opened the first 18 holes strong. Senior Evan Woosley-Reed led the charge, shooting 4-under par in the first round. Backed by four birdies and zero bogeys, he set the standard for the rest of the Pack to follow.
Not far behind, sophomore Pearce Lewin marked a first-round score of 2-under par. The South African native remained consistent, marking just one bogey through the first frame.
Redshirt senior Markus Varjun finished 1-under par and senior Joey Lenane finished just 1-over par, but sophomore Xander Goboy couldn’t find any sort of consistency, putting himself behind early with a score of 4-over par.
The Pack put itself in a position to win through the first round, but lost its composure on the second 18.
Lenane finally found his stroke, finishing the second round 4-under par. After five bogeys on the first frame, he played a perfect second frame, staying par or better the entire time.
Woosley-Reed marked three birdies of his own, but effectively cancelled them out with his first three bogeys of the match. However, he still finished the round at even.
But the rest of the Pack couldn’t maintain their composure. Goboy finished 2-over par, Varjun finished 3-over par and, after a respectable first round, Lewin lost his touch, finishing 4-over par.
With the third round cancelled, Woosley-Reed claimed his first top-10 appearance of his NC State career, finishing in a tie for fourth place with a score of 4-under par. Lenane finished just behind him in a tie for 10th place with a score of 3-under par, his rebounding efforts falling just short of the team lead.
Lewin and Varjun’s 2-over-par rounds put them in a tie for 44th place while Goboy’s 7-over par landed him in a tie for 66th place.
If NC State wants to secure its first tournament win of the season, it needs to find more consistency from the rest of its lineup. Though it ended the tournament with a team score of 5-under par, it was nowhere close to tournament winner Mississippi State’s final score of 11-under. All players need to play at their best for the Pack to even have a chance at contesting a score like that.
Next up, NC State closes the first portion of its schedule, travelling to Wilmington on Oct. 19-21 for the Williams Cup.