Garden City finishes 16 at NJCAA Championships
By Mike Pilosof
Melbourne, FL-The last time Garden City qualified for nationals in 2013, they finished 23rd out of 24 teams. Six years later, playing against some of the top talent in the country, the Broncbusters more than held their own.
Garden City finished 16th, and George Avgousti wrapped up a stellar close to his sophomore season, shooting a fourth-round 69 to come in at 1-under par for the tournament, taking 18th individually.
"It was a great experience," Avgousti said. "We earned this this year. Our team was great, and I felt like my game really came together."
On Friday, the Englishmen played his cleanest round of the tournament, not bogeying a single hole. He birdied No. 1; then preceded to par the next 10 holes before chipping in birdies on 12 and 15. He carded a 1-under through nine and 2-under on the back, finishing the afternoon 3-under.
"My putting got much better as the tournament went on," Avgousti explained.
While Avgousti had plenty of highlights, Vincent Wilhelm kept up his steady play. After a rough front nine that saw him bogey five and eight, the freshman rebounded to birdie three of the final nine, finishing 2-over par for the day and even for the tournament. He tied for 20th with five other golfers.
"You couldn't have asked for a cooler experience," Wilhelm said. "It's a great way to close the season."
The only headscratcher may have been Jake Bay, who is arguably one of the best golfers to come through Garden City in a long time. But his play was uneven for most of the week, including Friday, when he bogeyed five holes including a quadruple on 18 that turned a really good round into a six-over 78. He finished 89th at 21-over.
But quadruple aside, Bay was solid on the backside. After carding a 4-over through nine, the Shattuck, OK native birdied three straight holes (10, 11 and 12) to get back to 1-over. He followed by saving par on 13, 14, 15 and 16. But his last two holes were disastrous. He two putted 17 and then couldn't get anything to drop on 18.
Shaydon Johnson, who was used to getting off to some fast starts at Duran during the first couple of days of the tournament, did just the opposite on Friday. After a birdie on No. 1, he tripled two and bogeyed four. He closed the front nine with bogeys on the final three holes. In all, he two putted eight times, carding an 8-over 80 for the day. He finished the tournament 22-over and tied for 93rd.
"My goal the entire tournament was trying to keep those bogeys off of my card," Johnson said. "It just didn't happen."
Euan McBride finished his sophomore campaign by firing an 83. He had a triple and a double on the back nine but did birdie five and six. It was the second straight day he shot 80 or worse after a 79 and 77 to begin the tournament.