May 29, 2003
Stillwater, Okla. –
The University of Kentucky men’s golf team was eliminated from the NCAA Championship tournament on Thursday after shooting a third-round 310, which left them in 26th-place for the tournament. A format change, initiated by the tournament committee, allows just the top 18 teams after the third round to advance to the final day of the championship being played at the par-72 Karsten Creek Golf Course.
“Overall I think we can take pride in our performance,” Coach Brian Craig said. “We are disappointed we did not play better, but to finish 26th out of close to 300 division-one teams is pretty amazing.
“This course was extremely difficult and a few of our guys just didn’t have their best games. If you do not play your best in every round on this course, you are going to have some high numbers.”
Senior Ryan Coyne ended his college career making his first appearance in the NCAA National Championship. He finished his career shooting a final-round 87, which left him with a three-day total of 257. While he and the team didn’t have the outcome they hoped for, he was still pleased with the experience.
“It feels real good to make it this far,” Coyne said. “This is what we worked for all year. Obviously we planned to finish better than what we did, but it is still a great accomplishment for our team.”
Sophomore Mark Blakefield shot a 14-over par 86 on Thursday to give him a 40-over 256 for the tournament. Fellow sophomore Brandon Waldrop fired a 5-over par 77 to leave him at 16 over for the tournament with a 232 and freshman Matt Kohn played his best round of the tournament shooting a 6-over par 78 to leave him with a three-day 240 (+24).
The format change not only allowed the top 18 teams to advance but it also gave the top-six individuals not on those teams a chance to compete for an individual national championship in Friday’s final round.
Enter sophomore John Holmes who had his best game on Thursday, rebounding from a 4-over par second day to fire a 3-under par 69 to put him at plus one for the championship and catapult himself from 12th place into a tie for third with Lamar’s Chris Stroud.
“We are all really excited for John,” Craig said. “He has a really great shot at winning the national championship and we will all be out here pulling for him.”
The earliest Holmes would tee off on Friday would be 9:45 a.m. ET and the latest would be 10:30. Fans can follow all the action live and get full results at golfstat.com.
Kentucky Results
26Kentucky309 323 310 942 (+78)*
*Eliminated after 54 holes
Individuals
T3John Holmes72 76 69 217 (+1)*
T79Brandon Waldrop77 78 77 232 (+16)
T118Matt Kohn80 82 78 240 (+24)
T149Mark Blakefield83 87 86 256 (+40)
151Ryan Coyne80 90 87 257 (+41)
*Will compete in final round as an individual
