College Golf Notebook: Myrtle Beach hosts three different college events this week
11 Sep 2024
by Sean Melia of AmateurGolf.com
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The Myrtle Beach is always a bustling spot for golf trips. This week, three college events were held in the area - The Golfweek Fall Challenge and the Myrtle Beach Golf Trips.
Coastal Carolina hosted the inaugural Myrtle Beach Golf Trips at Grand Dunes while the men’s and women’s Golfweek Fall Challenge were held at Caledonia and True Blue.
All the events wrapped up this week, and here’s the rundown of what happened in Myrtle Beach.
Men’s Golfweek Fall Challenge:
Arkansas State Freshman Jake Wallis tied the program record low round with a 9-under par 63 to help the Arkansas State men's golf team close out a season-opening win in the Golfweek Fall Challenge at True Blue Golf Club. It was a 12-shot, wire-to-wire win for the Red Wolves.
Austin Peay (-17) and Stetson (-9) were the only other teams to finish the event under par. The tournament title is the 23rd under 10th-year head coach Mike Hagan. Arkansas State has all five of its players in the top 13.
On the individual side, Patton Samuels (Austin Peay) shot 66-67-68 (-15) to beat Andrew Flynn (Wright State) by two shots.
Women’s Golfweek Fall Challenge:
Campbell’s victory was the 100th for coach John Crooks. Crooks split his time this week between Caledonia and Grande Dunes, as he coaches both the men’s and women’s teams. He joins Dan Brooks of Duke (143) as the only coaches in NCAA Division I women's golf history with 100 tournament victories. Now in his 35th season as head men's coach and 34th in charge of the women's program, Tuesday's triumph was the 161st of his career, including 61 on the men's side.
"It's kind of a hard number to fathom for me," said Crooks. "Everything is about this team and about the girls and about the girls over the years. There's an awful lot of people who contributed, sacrificed and played their hearts out so that we have so many victories. I'm so proud to be a Camel!"
UNC-Willmington held the lead heading into the final day, but Campbell flipped the script and turned a 3-shot deficit into a five shot win. UNCW ended up finishing runner-up and UNC-Greensboro finished in third place.
Myrtle Beach Golf Trips Intercollegiate
John Crooks nearly collected two wins this week, as his men’s Campbell team finished in second place to Santa Clara. The Broncos were led by J.P. Odland (-9), who earned co-medalist honors alongside Jack Wieler (Elon) and Dylan Teeter (Texas El Paso).
"Simply put, JP (Odland) earned this. He's put in so much work and is so dedicated to the team and his craft,” said coach Andrew Larkin. “He is just scratching the surface of what he can be and this first collegiate win will be one he remembers for a while."
Freshman Bronco Emil Nielsen had the best round of the final day of the entire 87-player field, carding a 5-under 67 that included five birdies and an eagle on the par-5 17th. He finished in sole possession of fourth place in his collegiate debut at 8-under 71-70-67--208.