Feb. 16, 2009
PONTE VERDRA BEACH, Fla. – After a long 36 holes of golf, including a second career hole-in-one for Andy Winings, the Kentucky men’s golf team sits in a tie with tournament host Jacksonville University for third place in the Jacksonville University Invitational on the 6,838-yard, par-72 TPC Sawgrass Valley course.
Winings, who finished the day in a tie for first place through two rounds, dropped the highlight of the day during his final four-hole run of the first round.
The senior captain finished the last four holes during his first round with an eagle on the 499-yard, par-5 No. 17 hole, followed with back-to-back pars. His grand finale came on the 170-yard, par-3 No. 2 hole. In dramatic fashion with a cool hand, Winings gripped and ripped his tee shot and when the ball came to a stop it was in the bottom of the cup.
It was Winings’ second career hole-in-one. He sank his first career hole-in-one last year at the Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational on March 16, 2008. The Wildcats will return to the Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational again this year in mid-March.
Kentucky has eight competitors in the tournament, including three players participating as individuals. Sophomore James Kania had a breakout performance for the second leading Wildcat scorer, shooting five-over par, which puts him in a tie for 10th. Kania was followed by freshman Mads Kristensen in 18th place. Rounding out the scoring was junior Jordan Blann, tied for 19th, and senior Ben Fuqua, who is tied for 23rd.
The three individuals made a strong statement Monday as they all fared well. Lexington native junior Derek Oldham is tied for 30th, sophomore Chase Carpenter is tied for 34th and junior Alex Volpenhein holds the 53rd spot outright.
Kentucky returns to action tomorrow morning in the final 18 holes with Fuqua leading the charge for team play with a 10:35 a.m. ET tee time. The first individual tee time is set for 8:05 am ET when Volpenhein takes the course.
To follow live scoring of the tournament log onto golfstat.com and for a full tournament recap log following the completion of the tournament onto ukathletics.com. After the turn tomorrow, ukathletics.com will post the score of the first nine holes of play on the new Cat Scratches blog.
