Calabash, NC. – The 2026 spring portion of the Wheeling University Men's Golf team's schedule teed off Thursday with the Cardinals traveling to Calabash, North Carolina. The team competed in the first of three rounds of the Brunswick Open, and find themselves sitting top five as a team after 18 holes, tied for fifth overall. They were led by a pair of top 15 finishers in the round, with one Cardinal sitting tied atop the leaderboard heading into day two.
Leading the Cardinal effort was graduate student Sean Dobson, who shot even par (72) to sit tied for first in the field through 18 holes. The graduate student entered the tournament ranked #13 in the region, and got his day going with a consistent performance on the back nine. He would par on six of the nine holes, with the highlight coming on hole 14. After adding his first stroke of the day with a bogey the hole before, Dobson was able to get that stroke back with a birdie on hole 14. He would finish the back nine at 36 (+1) and would head to the front nine looking to get back to even. It would end up being his strongest nine-hole showing of the day, shooting 35 (-1) on the front nine to finish at par. He was highlighted by three birdies on the front nine, and took two strokes off his score over the final five holes. It was a strong first round for the graduate, as he looks to hold his standing heading into day two.
Finishing right behind him was Federico Cobos Kallman, who competed in his first collegiate event, finishing tied for 14th in the field. Like Dobson, he would also start on the back nine, and put together his best performance of the day. He pared on the first three holes, before hitting birdie on hole 13 and following that up with three more pars. He would finish even on the back nine, shooting 36, before adding a 39 on the front nine to finish at +3 on the day. Rounding out the top 30 placers was Lodin Femoen, who finished tied for 36th with a +6 on the day. Femoen would birdie three times on the course, with two of those three coming on the front nine. He put together a strong finish on the front nine, hitting par on holes five and six, before birdieing on hole seven. He finished with a par of hole eight and a birdie on hole nine to round out the effort.
Rounding out the team portion of the event were Luke Wennberg and Zak Collins, who finished tied for 50th and tied for 65th respectively after 18 holes. Wennberg would have success on the back nine, hitting par seven times and finishing with a 38 (+2) at the turn. He would add three more on the front nine, but had six bogeys to round out the day at 80 (+8) for the day. Collins would round out the day in the fifth spot for the Cardinals, shooting an 82 (+10) to start the spring. He shot identical 41's on both the front and back nine, with his consistency coming on the front nine. He would shoot par on six straight holes from hole 3-8, and added his first birdie of the day on hole 15 to round out the effort.
The two individual Cardinals to compete in the event were freshman Elia Ekenes-Fosback and sophomore Makstr McIntyre. Both would shoot 79 (+7) on the day, finishing fourth and fifth among the team's golfers on the day. Ekenes-Fosback shined on the back nine, hitting a pair of birdies and shooting a 38 as he hit the turn. He would add six more pars on the front nine to round out his first spring round of 2026. McIntyre would show his skill on the front nine, shooting the second lowest score on the team. He would hit two birdies to compliment six pars on the front nine, to finish with a 37 in the effort.
The Wheeling University Men's Golf team returns to action in round two of the Brusnwick Open on Friday, March 13th, with tee times beginning at around 7:30 AM.
