CMS Men's Golf Moves up Two Spots to Fifth at Midway Point of NCAA Championships

GolfStat Scoring

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team moved up two spots into a tie for fifth place after the second round of the NCAA Division III Championships, easily making the cut (top 18) to advance through to play in the third and fourth rounds, which will be held tomorrow and Friday.

Methodist had a strong finish to take the lead at +9 after a 289 on the day (+5). CMS is 17 shots back at +26 in a tie with Washington & Lee, while Carnegie Mellon (+15), Hampden-Sydney (+17), and Huntingdon (+21) stand between the Stags and the top of the leaderboard in second through fourth.

CMS made a strong move in the first half of the day, getting within two shots of the lead at one point. The Stags started on the 10th, with Vijay Jain, Vikram Chatterjee and Yeufeng (Michael) Ma all carding birdies on their first holes. Will Parker then got hot in the middle of the back nine with birdies on No. 14 and No. 15.

At the turn, CMS heated up again, with Jain, Parker and Ma all getting birdies on No. 1, and Jain and Ma adding a second in a row on No. 2. Ma, in fact, had a streak of three birdies in a row, after ending the back nine with a birdie on No. 18.

CMS ran into some stumbles in the middle of the back nine to fall into seventh place, but regrouped for a strong finish, as Jain, Chatterjee, Parker, and Mason Chiu each picked up birdies on No. 9 to finish their rounds and bump the Stags back up to fifth, giving them some momentum heading into tomorrow's third round.

Parker had his second straight 74 and is the highest ranking Stag on the individual leaderboard in a tie for 20th place at +5. Chatterjee is one shot behind in a tie for 26th, out of the 221 golfers in the field.

The third round of the NCAA Championships will take place tomorrow morning, as the Stags will try to close the gap on Methodist and give themselves a chance at a final-round push for a title on Friday.