Darton golfers finish second at Doublegate

ALBANY — The Darton State men’s golf team shot a team score of 281 on Tuesday at the Doublegate Invitational.

But the Cavaliers finished in second-place with a total score of 866, six strokes behind the Eastern Florida State.

“Today we played great … Yesterday, we just got beat,” Darton coach Gary Hilton said. “Eastern Florida came out and shot 13 under in the second round. It kind of left us a little bit. We ended up 13 shots back. Going into today, we knew that we needed to shoot a really low score. We came out and I think finished 7-under par today, which is outstanding.

“Those scores we shot these three rounds would win 99 percent of the tournaments we play. We just had one team that came out and played really well this week.”

The Cavaliers shot the lowest team score in Tuesday’s third and final round, beating EFSC by seven strokes. Before Tuesday’s play, the Cavaliers had shot a total of 585 for the first two rounds on Monday, trailing the Titans by 13 strokes.

However, Tuesday’s performance was not enough to overtake the Titans.

“Hats off to them,” Hilton said. “We didn’t lose. We got beat. Like I tell the guys, I’m always ok if you get beat, but put forth a good effort.”

Darton’s Seth Sanders had the best finish of all the Darton golfers, shooting 216 after three rounds and finishing tied for fifth.

“The team played really good today,” Sanders said. “I think that once the word got around that a few players on the team were under par, everybody just fed off that. I think things are going in the right direction.”

After having played much better in the Doublegate Invitational, Sanders believes he is gaining more confidence.

“My past two tournaments haven’t been so great, so to come out here and play solid golf for two of three rounds, it does a lot for my confidence,” he said.

Josh Glossop finished the tournament with the second best total among Darton golfers at 217, shooting a 71 in the final round.

“I ended up shooting one under … I was pretty impressed,” Glossop said. “We stick together and try to take it as low as we can.”

Even though their individual scores didn’t count toward the team’s overall score, Darton golfers Tyler Shamblin and Baley Ulp each finished strong as they both shot a 71 in the final round.

“I feel like I played pretty good…missed a few putts,” Ulp said. “I hit the ball well. I played a lot better than the last two rounds yesterday. It could have been a lot lower, but I’m pretty happy with a 71 after how I played yesterday.”

Ulp nearly got an eagle on the 15th hole when he chipped out of the bunker and barely missed the hole.

The Cavaliers will get ready for the NJCAA DII National Preview Tournament to be held on March 12 at the Goose Pond Resort in Scottsboro, Ala.