Golf takes second at Matlock
The No. 15 Georgia College golf team was on the road Feb. 14 to 15 in Lakeland Fla. to play in their first match of the new year at the Matlock Invitational hosted by Florida Southern.
The Bobcats finished second place in the overall tournament, coming in behind the tournament winner No. 9 University of West Florida by just four strokes.
Georgia College defeated the host of the Matlock Collegiate, No. 20 Florida Southern, by three strokes.
“We beat some good teams. Having held the lead after the first two rounds it was sort of disappointing not to finish it off, but second in that field of 15 teams is pretty good,” Head Coach Jimmy Wilson said. “For 50 of the 54 holes we probably played as good as we could play. I’m happy for the guys.”
Shida
The Matlock Invitational consisted of three rounds: two on Monday and one on Tuesday, and was held at the Lone Palm golf course, a 7,065 yard, par-72 course.
Of the 15 schools that competed, Georgia College finished with an overall team score of 862, which was good enough to earn them second place behind West Florida, who finished with an overall score of 858.
The Bobcats finished the first round with a team score of 285; they finished Monday’s second round with a 285 and for Tuesday’s round they finished with a team score of 292.
Out of the five Georgia College players that competed, two finished in the top-10.
Claiming the individual first place title was Bobcat senior Billy Shida, who shot a 67 for Monday’s first round, a 69 for Monday’s second round and a 69 for Tuesday’s round.
Shida finished with an overall score of 205, an 11-under par score, finishing five strokes ahead of the second place finisher.
Shida also made history in the tournament because he achieved an accomplishment that no golfer has in 16 years.
In the tournament, Shida posted three sub-70 round scores, which no golfer has done since 1995.
“It’s pretty awesome stuff. When Billy came here four years ago we knew he was a good player,” Wilson said. “This week he busted through and played like I always knew he could play.”
Finishing second for Georgia College was senior Joe Young.
Young posted a 73 for Monday’s first round a 69 for the second round.
He came out strong on Tuesday and finished the third round with a score of 71, giving him a total score of 213 and giving him his seventh place individual spot.
Narrowly missing a spot for the top-30 in the overall tournament was Bobcat sophomore Patrick Garrett, who finished with an overall score of 221.
Garrett shot a 73 on the first round, a 73 on the second round, and a 75 in the final round, which placed him at 31st place in the overall tournament.
Finishing fourth for the Bobcats and 40th overall in the tournament was senior Matthew Yonz.
Shooting a 72 in the opening round, a 74 in Monday’s second round, and a 78 in Tuesday’s round gave Yonz and overall score of 224, just three strokes behind his fellow Bobcat Garrett.
Bringing up the rear for Georgia College was sophomore Taylor Smith.
Finishing the first round with an 80, Monday’s second round with a 75 and Tuesday’s round with a 77 earned Smith 66th place in the overall tournament.
The Bobcats are on the road Feb. 28 to Pensacola, Fla., where they will compete in the Argonaut Invitational, hosted by West Florida.
“We’ll just continue to practice and try to get better. With homecoming weekend this weekend it’s going to be hard to get a whole lot done with them but they deserve a week off because they’ve been going ever since school started back. We’ve been practicing or playing every weekend,” Wilson said. “I think giving them the weekend off will be a good thing for them because it will give them time to rest and kick back and then we’ll get back at it Monday getting ready for the Argonaut.”
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