’Hawks golf places second

By Jack Reyering, The Miami Student

The Miami University men's golf team placed second out of 14 teams at the Colleton River Collegiate Tuesday.

The RedHawks finished in fourth place after the first round. Head coach Zac Zedrick told the team members they should worry about their own play and the things they could personally control.

"The thing that we really talked about was that it was really just going to be about us focusing on what we need to do out there and not being concerned with what Tennessee or Michigan State was doing," Zedrick said.

Miami rallied in the final two rounds to finish in second place, eight strokes behind the University of Tennessee.

Two RedHawks finished in the overall top 10. Freshman Patrick Flavin finished seventh, and junior Jack Sparling finished ninth. After starting the front nine of the first round 4 over par, Flavin went 6 under on the back nine to finish the round at 70.

"Personally, I got off to a really shaky start. I was a bunch over par after the first seven or eight holes," Flavin said. "But I relaxed, calmed down and shook some of the rust off and started playing really well."

Zedrick wasn't shocked that the team's best round came from a freshman.

"Sometimes it takes [freshmen] a little while to figure out what their role is and how they fit," Zedrick said. "On the other hand, there are a lot of people who can come in and get acclimated quickly."

Zedrick believes Flavin is one of those people.

"Patrick was one of those guys who was able to acclimate himself with the demands of school here," Zedrick said. "He worked incredibly hard before he got here so he was very prepared on the golf side and made the life adjustment very well and the golf has followed."

Finishing the round 2 under par, the freshman was able to build on his back nine performance from the first round. His combined score of 220 after three rounds gave him seventh place overall.

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"For me it was a really good week. I made a ton of strides in the mental game, which is what I kind of struggled with in the fall," Flavin said. "As a team I think it was fantastic because everyone contributed, and obviously we would have liked to have won but we all played really well."

The RedHawks continue their 15-day three tournament run this weekend. The two-round Talis Park Challenge begins Sunday in Naples, Florida.

Flavin and his teammates will look to carry over their performance from Colleton River to the Talis Park Challenge and the rest of the season moving forward.

"I think we all gained a lot of confidence from the way we battled out there and gave ourselves a chance to win," Flavin said. "It was good to shake the rust off, and I think we'll all be ready to go for the next couple of tournaments."

Zedrick has coached teams through these types of stretches before. He doesn't see the schedule as an issue for the team.

"We've played a lot of back to back events before," Zedrick said. "So for us, the good thing about this stretch is that the last tournament is actually on the front end of our spring break."

Zedrick isn't too worried about his team being prepared and believes they are ready and eager to play as much golf as possible.

"We played one tournament in early February," Zedrick said. "So the guys are pretty pumped for this stretch of golf . . . I think they'd like the first round at Talis Park to be tomorrow."