Calabash, NC. – After a strong showing on day one, the Wheeling University Men's Golf team looks to keep things going Friday with day two of the Brunswick Open. It was moving day for the Cardinals, and the team jumped one spot in the team standings, taking six strokes off their day one score for their first sub-300 team score of the spring at 299. It was enough to leapfrog Bluefield State for fourth place, led by a resurgence from two of the Cardinal's top four scorers at the event.
The biggest jump of the day would come courtesy of sophomore Federico Cobos Kallam, who dropped four strokes off his score and jumped ten spots in the individual standings. He would set a new collegiate PR, shooting a 71 for the round to finish -1 on the day and bring his total score for the event to +2. The sophomore would set the tone right away on hole 10, hitting a birdie to open the round and he never looked back. His success was based largely on his work on the back nine, where he added one more birdie, shooting a 34 (-2) at the turn. He continued his success on the front nine, paring on six of the nine holes, while adding his third birdie of the round. He sat even entering hole nine, but added a stroke to round out the day with a 37 (+1) coming in. The effort was enough to pull him into the top five of the event, moving from 14th on day one to fourth entering the final round of competition on Saturday.
The other big day two jump would come courtesy of Zak Collins, who had the biggest individual drop by taking seven strokes off his score. Like Kallam, Collins's success would also start on the back nine, hitting par on each of the first four. He would get under par with a birdie on hole 14, but got that stroke right back on the next hole. He would finish the back nine shooting an even 36 at the turn, before the front nine gave him some challenges. He would bogey four times on the front nine, but supplemented that with his second birdie of the day. He would finish at +3 for the front nine, bringing his total score to 75 for the round. Along with having the biggest score drop of the day, Collins also had the biggest jump in the standings moving from 67th overall into the top 50 at 46. Kallam and Collins combined to take 11 strokes off the team score, and both carry momentum with them into the final round of competition.
Continuing his consistency on the course was graduate student Sean Dobson, who sits second after 36 holes shooting a 145 for the event. Dobson would add just one stroke to his day two score, shooting a 73, and the back nine continued to be his time to shine. He would hit par on eight of the nine holes and hit the turn sitting at 37 (+1). He would hit each of his two birdies in the round on the front nine, shooting +1 on the final nine holes to end his day at 73. The final player to factor into the team score on day two was Lodin Femoen, who sat right around his day one score at 80. After shooting +7 on the back nine, Femoen hit his stride over the final nine holes. He would hit par on seven of the nine holes, and took a stroke off his score on hole eight. He would finish with a +1 on the front nine to round out the day shooting an 80 over the second 18 holes.
Rounding out the team portion of the event for the Cardinals was Luke Wennberg, who finished the second round shooting an 86. He would start the day strong, hitting two birdies across his first five holes, but he would hit just four pars the rest of the way. Elias Ekenes-Fosback and Makstr McIntyre rounded out the day individually, with both shooting sub-80 scores. Ekenes-Fosback dropped four strokes off their day one score, finishing with one birdie and 14 pars to finish off the second round. McIntyre would round out the day shooting a 77, two strokes lower than his day one effort, and finished with a pai of birdies while paring 12 times on the day.
The Wheeling University Men's Golf team wraps up the Brunswick Open with round three on Saturday, March 14th, with tee times beginning at 7:40 AM.
