WWU men’s golf moved up to as high as 8th place, but had a tough finish to finish the 2nd round in 17th place

Senior Chris Hatch led WWU with a 3-over-par 73 in Tuesday’s second round at the 2017 NCAA Division II Golf Championships
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Western Washington University men’s golf team started off the day moving up the leaderboard to as high as 8th place, but had a tough finish over the final nine holes to slip to 17th place through the first two rounds of the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championships played Tuesday on the Watson Course at Reunion Resort.
Entering the round in 12th place, the Vikings moved up to as high as 8th and completed the first nine holes (playing holes 10-18) in 10th place in the 20-team tournament. The top eight teams following tomorrow’s third round of stroke play will move on to the quarterfinal round of match play to determine the national champion.
WWU’s bugaboo were holes 4-6 (13-15 of the round) where the five Vikings combined to play the three holes at 16-over-par. WWU turned in a 8-over-par mark at the turn, but staggered home at 23-over-par over the final nine holes. Overall the Vikings four counting scores turned in a 22-over-par 302 on Tuesday, 11 strokes back of the 291 (+11) in Monday’s opening round. At 33-over-par for the tournament (593), Western is 14 strokes back of the eighth place team heading into Wednesday’s final round.
“Today was a tough one. We played solid on the front, but momentum slipped on our second nine,” said head coach Luke Bennett. “Everyone had a rough stretch all at once, which is unfortunate. But there is still more golf to be played and these guys can bounce back.”
Barry (-8, 552), West Florida (-4, 556), Florida Tech (+1, 561) and Florida Southern (+2, 562) have a firm grasp on the first four spots in the team standings while playing the national tournament in their home state.
Senior Brett Johnson (Ridgefield, WA) is tied for 40th in the 108-player field, carding a 5-over-par 75 to back up his even-par 70 on Monday. Johnson, who today was named to the PING Division II All-West Region team, was at even par through his first 13 holes before carding a double-bogey on the par 4 No. 5 and a triple-bogey on the pare 4 No. 6.
Senior Chris Hatch (Mukilteo, WA/Kamiak) duplicated his first round score of 3-over-par 73, and sits in a tie for 46th place at 6-over-par 146 for the tournament. Hatch had a steady finish, playing the final nine holes at even par.
Freshman Ethan Casto (Snohomish, WA) is tied for 71st at +10 (73-77=150), followed by senior Jeffrey Marcum (Richland, WA) in a tie for 85th at +12 (75-77=152) and sophomore Michael Butler (Sammamish, WA/Skyline) in a tie for 95th at +15 (76-79=155).
Florida Southern’s John Coultas remains the individual leader at 6-under-par 134, holding a one-stroke lead over Barry’s Niclas Weiland. Only 11 players in the 108-player field are at even-par or better through the first 36 holes on the par 70, 7,054 layout designed by golfing legend Tom Watson.
The final round is set to begin at 9 am ET/6 am PT in a shotgun format due to weather concerns in the Central Florida region. Fans and media can follow the second round leaderboard and team standings via Golfstat.