HARTWELL, Ga. – Returning to the links after a week off, the Anderson University men's golf team took home an 11th place finish at the Cateechee Fall Invitational hosted by Lander University at the Cateechee Golf Club on October 2-3.
"Really saw a lot of good things this week," said head coach Austin Castles. "We finished the week fourth overall in birdies made which means we are making enough birdies to compete, but we are making more mistakes leading to larger number. When we begin to clean that up we will start to find ourselves in contention."
The Trojans shot +10 as a team, getting better every round through the tournament, culminating in an even-par round three performance. Freshman Sam McMillan (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) had the best outing for Anderson this week as his second round 63 tied for the best 18-hole round in program history, tying a mark set by Callahan Keever just last season. He bookended rounds of 72 and 75 to finish -3 for the tournament and in a tie for 13th.
"An awesome take away from this week is freshman Sam McMillan tying the 18-hole scoring record firing a 63 in second round. Sam is an unbelievable talent and I believe this will be a huge confidence booster for him. To go out and shoot 63 in only your third start of your college career is super impressive and I can't wait to see what he can do moving forward."
Senior Daniel Coker (Hartsville, S.C.) was more consistent in his rounds, finishing just five shots behind McMillan at +2 for the tournament to secure a tie for 32nd. "Daniel was really solid this week," added Castles. "He really played good golf and was really close to playing great golf!"
Freshman Luke Sullivan (Columbia, S.C.) was able to bookend even-par rounds to finish tied for 67th at +8 on the week. Fellow freshman Can Gürdenli (Istanbul, Turkey) mirrored the team's performance on the week as he bettered his score each round, capping it off with a one-under third round to tie him for 76th. Junior Simon Wright (Lancaster, S.C.) rounded out the performances with an 81st place finish.
"One last thing to note is Can knocking in a hole-in-one in the opening round on hole 16. It was his first hole-in-one on a par 3 in his career."
Anderson will now take another two-week hiatus from the course as they next will take on the Hurricane Invitational at the Doublegate Country Club on October 16-17.
