Michigan
The Landfall Tradition
Nichols Even Par at Landfall Tradition, Ties for Seventh
11/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
| | Nichols registered his third and fourth sub-par rounds of his junior season. |
Sophomore/freshman Mark McIntosh (Gaylord, Mich./Gaylord HS) opened with a two-over 74 in the first round but slipped in the second, carding an 80. He fired a 76 in the final round to finish tied for 41st with a 230 total.
Other Wolverine finishes included: junior/sophomore Rob Tighe (Traverse City, Mich./West HS), was 54th (79-81-79/239); sophomore/freshman Jimmy Wisinski (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Northern HS), tied for 56th (80-84-80/244); and senior/junior Chris Kellogg (Traverse City, Mich./Central HS), was 58th (82-87-84/253).
Minnesota (283-293-287) and host and second-day leader UNC-Wilmington (289-285-289) tied for the team title with one-under 863 totals, but the Golden Gophers won the team title in a playoff. Missouri was third at 870 (290-295-285). Minnesota's Matt Anderson (71-70-70) and Justin Smith (70-73-68) shared medalist honors with five-under 211 totals. Missouri's Chris Happ was third at 213 (71-70-72).
The Wolverines have now completed their fall season. The Maize and Blue will not return to action until the spring season begins at the end of February when the Wolverines head to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the Puerto Rico Classic (Feb. 23-25).
Final Team Standings
1. Minnesota* 283-293-287 = 863 (-1) 2. UNC-Wilmington 289-285-289 = 863 3. Missouri 290-295-285 = 870 4. Duke 292-289-293 = 874 5. Purdue 298-288-298 = 884 6. Virginia Tech 290-307-290 = 887 7. Tulsa 306-302-292 = 900 8. Furman 303-297-303 = 903 9. Penn State 302-310-298 = 910 10. UNC-Charlotte 299-308-304 = 911 11. Wisconsin 305-311-301 = 912 12. MICHIGAN 304-319-306 = 929 * playoff winner
Top Individuals
1. Matt Anderson, Minnesota 71-70-70 = 211 (-5) Justin Smith, Minnesota 70-73-68 = 211 3. Chris Happ, Missouri 71-70-72 = 213 4. Derek Brown, UNCW 73-69-73 = 215 Russell Killough, UNCC 73-71-71 = 215 Mike Castleforte, Duke 71-71-73 = 215 7. DAVE NICHOLS, U-M 71-74-71 = 216 (E) Shiv Kapur, Purdue 72-70-74 = 216 9. Ryan Stinnett, Va. Tech 69-78-70 = 217 Peter Karmis, Purdue 68-72-77 = 217 Tony DiBitetto, UNCW 73-71-73 = 217 12. Brian Joyce, UNCW 71-74-73 = 218
Michigan Individual Finishes
T41. Mark McIntosh 74-80-76 = 230 54. Rob Tighe 79-81-79 = 239 T56. Jimmy Wisinski 80-84-80 = 244 58. Chris Kellogg 82-87-84 = 253
Q U O T E S
Head Coach Andrew Sapp
On the Landfall Tradition ... "I was really pleased with Dave's (Nichols) play. Obviously anytime you can get a top-10 finish with a good field of individuals and a lot of All-Americans here is excellent. This is a great way for him to finish the fall and get prepared for the spring. But overall, I was disappointed with the way the other guys played. They didn't back him up a whole lot and because of that our team finished where it did."
On Dave Nichols' play continuing to improve throughout the fall ... "It's a matter of him realizing that he can play with all the other players from some of the top schools in the country. This weekend he did that and I think it really made him realize some things. It will be an exciting spring for him because he will get another chance to play some of these same players right out the box in the spring. It will just be a matter of him realizing that he can shoot the numbers that it takes to be All-Big Ten and even beyond. To realize that you can do this week in and week out will be his key, something I think he knows now he can do. For anyone to come to this tournament and shoot even par, or better like he did, on a tough, tough golf course like we had this weekend, says a lot about you and your game."
On his thoughts of the fall season ... "I think we can chalk it up to getting experience, getting a team that doesn't have a whole lot of experience some experience. Hopefully that will pay off for us as we grow and get older. We need to continue to improve and continue to work on the things that make good golf teams better. Looking at our fall, we have a lot of things to work on. Our short games are not very good. We do not make a whole lot of birdies on par 5s, which is where you need to learn how to score. We are excited about getting some good conditioning done over the winter and then getting right into the spring season."
Junior Dave Nichols
On his career-best tournament finish ... "For me, I played my best collegiate tournament considering this is one of the toughest courses I have ever played in my career. It was just one of those courses that if you are playing well, you pretty much can't help but shoot good scores. There was room to hit if off the tees and into the greens, but if you are not hitting it well you can really struggle. I was lucky enough where I guess you could say I had my 'A' game this week. I have struggled somewhat with my driver all fall, but this week that was not a worry. I hit it pretty solidly and averaged hitting about 11 or 12 out of 14 fairways every day. My iron game was solid this week and I sank a lot of those birdie putts I was missing earlier this season. So all of that resulted in a pretty good finish."
On his thoughts on the fall season ... "For me, up until this tournament it has been extremely disappointing. I played pretty well in Tennessee but really didn't play that well in any of the other tournaments. This was definitely a really good way to end the fall for me. As a team, we kind of all thought that it was going to be a semi-rebuilding year and so far that has been what it has been. I think we are going to work hard over the winter and we are going to surprise a lot of people in the spring. You never know what is going to happen or what could happen."
N O T E S
Junior Dave Nichols' 54-hole total of 216 at the Landfall Tradition was a career best by two strokes. Earlier this season, Nichols tied his previous career best with a 218 at the 2002 Wolverine Invitational (Oct. 5-6), matching his 218 from the 2001 Xavier Invitational (Oct. 8-9, 2001).
Nichols' first- and third-round scores of one-under 71 were the third and fourth times this season he has broken par for 18 holes. He fired a one-under 70 in the first round at the Northern Intercollegiate (Sept. 28-29) and a career- and season-best two-under 69 in the first round of the Wolverine Invitational (Oct. 5-6).
Contact: Tom Wywrot (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
