McIntosh Ties for Third at Inverness Intercollegiate

Tuesday, September 18

Toledo, Ohio

8:30 AM

Michigan

Inverness Intercollegiate

9/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf

Sept. 18, 2012

Site: Toledo, Ohio
Course: Inverness Club (par 71, 7,255 yards)
Tournament: Inverness Intercollegiate
U-M Team Standing: Tie-9th Place of 10 Teams (297-291-312/900)
Top U-M Individual: Brett McIntosh, tie-3rd (71-70-75/216)
Next Event: Sun-Mon., Sept. 23-24 -- at Windon Memorial Classic (Skokie, Ill.)

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Freshman Brett McIntosh (London, Ontario, Canada/Saunders Secondary School) missed out on medalist honors by one stroke for the University of Michigan men's golf team, which opened its 2012-13 season today (Tuesday, Sept. 18) tying for ninth with a 900 two-day total at Toledo's Inverness Intercollegiate at the Inverness Club.

With an even-par 71 and a one-under 70, McIntosh paced the Wolverines during Monday's (Sept. 17) 36-hole day as U-M posted team rounds of 297 and 291 to close tied for seventh at 588. As higher winds and scattered rain elevated the entire field's final-round tallies, the Wolverines closed today posting a 312 to finish in a tie for ninth with host Toledo.

In his Michigan debut, McIntosh led the Wolverines and nearly pulled off a victory as he tied for third with a three-over 216 tally. Using his rounds of 71 and 70 on the first day, he sat tied for third with a one-under 141, just three shots out of the lead. With weather and tougher course conditions in the final round, McIntosh found himself just one shot back of the lead with two holes to play.

Closing on the 12th and 13th holes, McIntosh found the greenside bunker off the tee on No. 12 with his ball landing in a previous ball's mark. Needing to make par to stay in contention, his sand save went short as he double-bogeyed the hole and followed with a par on No. 13 to give him a three-over 216 event total.

Following behind McIntosh was senior Miguel Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia/The Columbus School), who posted his second career top-20 finish as he tied for 17th at 221 (73-73-75). Freshman Chris O'Neill (Glen Allen, Va./Deep Run HS) started his first career event and finished 51st at 233 (79-74-80), while senior Matt Alessi (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Birmingham Brother Rice) tied for 52nd at 234 (78-74-82). Sophomore Noori Hyun (Seoul, Korea/Centreville HS [Va.]) rounded out the Wolverine starting five as he closed 57th at 239 (75-79-85).

Junior Matt Felsenfeld (West Bloomfield, Mich./Leadbetter Golf Academy [Fla.]) and sophomore Andrew Wong (Deerfield Beach, Fla./Pompano Beach HS) played as invited individuals and finished 59th (81-79-84/244) and 63rd (81-85-82/248), respectively.

The Wolverines will return to competition next week (Sun-Mon., Sept. 23-24) when they travel to Skokie, Ill., to play in the Windon Memorial Classic at the Skokie Country Club. U-M has played in Northwestern's event the last five years and captured the team title in 2010 and two individual medalist honors -- Matt Thompson in 2011 and Lion Kim in 2010.

Final Team Standings

 1. Northwestern     285-288-295 = 868 2. Florida State    289-289-301 = 879    Kent State       289-292-298 = 879    North Texas      284-284-311 = 879 5. Liberty          294-289-300 = 883 6. Michigan State   299-291-297 = 887 7. South Florida    293-286-310 = 889 8. Penn State       296-292-306 = 894 9. MICHIGAN         297-291-312 = 900    Toledo           300-299-301 = 900

Top Individuals

 1. Kevin Miller, Kent State        66-75-74 = 215 (+2)    Jack Perry, Northwestern        70-72-73 = 215 3. BRETT MCINTOSH, U-M             71-70-75 = 216    Chase Koepka, South Florida     71-68-77 = 216    Niklas Lindstrom, Liberty       72-72-72 = 216    Nicholas Losole, Northwestern   71-72-73 = 216    Taylor Pendrith, Kent State     75-72-69 = 216    Jason Roets, North Texas        71-70-75 = 216    Chase Seiffert, Florida State   73-70-73 = 216    Andrew Whalen, Northwestern     69-73-74 = 216

Other Michigan Individuals

T17. Miguel Echavarria   73-73-75 = 221 51. Chris O'Neill       79-74-80 = 233T52. Matt Alessi         78-74-82 = 234 57. Noori Hyun          75-79-85 = 239 59. Matt Felsenfeld  81-79-84 = 244* 63. Andrew Wong         81-85-82 = 248* * played as individuals

N O T E S

• Brett McIntosh and Chris O'Neill started their first career events for Michigan.

• Miguel Echavarria and Matt Alessi each started their 12th straight event for Michigan.

• Brett McIntosh became the first freshman to led Michigan in a season-opening event since the 1993-94 season when Kyle Dobbs led U-M at the Falcon Invitational, tying for 18th.

• Miguel Echavarria posted the second top-20 finish of his career, tying for 17th. Last season, he recorded a career-best finish, tying for 14th in the season-opening Wolverine Intercollegiate (Sept. 12-13, 2011).

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head coach Chris Whitten
On his thoughts on the Inverness Intercollegiate ... "It's a golf course that some of the guys knew. Obviously it is a challenging course as it has hosted major golf championships. We were excited to get a gauge of where our games were at after a week and a half of practice. Brett (McIntosh) did a really nice job and his game made a big jump forward when the tournament started. Some other guys got a better picture of where we need to focus our work. The course definitely played tougher in the final round. It was set up tougher. The weather was tougher. We were hoping for that so we had a chance to move up even more. We started well and just couldn't keep it going in the second half of the round."

On the play of Brett McIntosh ... "He is a mature kid. He has played in a lot of big tournaments against a lot of other college players so even though his was his first tournament (for U-M), I don't think it was an uncomfortable experience for him at all. He just played well. Like a lot of the guys on this team, when they play well they are going to contend to win the tournament. That is a great sign for all the guys. We are going keep pushing one another in practice and when we do put it together at an event we will see what can happen."

On U-M getting right back to tournament play at the Windon Memorial ... "We have two days of practice to really go through some things at home. The Windon is going to be on another classic style golf course. Playing here at Inverness will be a very good lead in to Skokie (Country Club). We just have to put together a more solid performance. We will do some hard work for two days. It will be good to get right back out and fix some mistakes."

U-M Freshman Brett McIntosh
On playing in his first collegiate event ... "Just representing the University is a huge honor. Every time you look down and see the block 'M' on your chest makes you work just that much harder. I knew it was my first tournament, but I just went out there to have fun and get as much college golf experience as I could. Golf balls don't know who is hitting them, so that is the mentality I had out there for the week and it seemed to pay off."

On if he knew down the stretch he had a chance to win it ... "I knew I had a pretty good chance. I had a pretty good start to the morning, but it was playing tough out there. There is a stretch from holes three through seven that can make or break your round. I made it through but I knew the leaders were going to go through that to finish. I just tried to keep grinding to finish strong and give myself a chance. I just came up a little short."

Contact: Tom Wywrot (724) 763-4423