Robert Kepler Intercollegiate | |
Dates | Saturday-Sunday, April 23-24 |
Location | Columbus Country Club | Columbus, Ohio | Par 72, 7,077 yards |
Scoring | Live Scoring |
Field | Ball State, Illinois, Indiana, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, Michigan State, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State (host), Penn State, Rutgers, Toledo |
Competing Nittany Lions | Patrick Sheehan, Lou Olsakovsky, Jake Griffin, James Allen, Jimmy Meyers Individual: Ben Smith |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's golf team heads to Ohio State's Kepler Intercollegiate Saturday and Sunday for its final tournament before next weekend's Big Ten Championships.
The 54-hole Kepler Intercollegiate will be held at the Columbus Country Club, a par-72, 7,077-yard course. Tee times begin at 7:30 a.m. both days this weekend, with 36 holes being played on Saturday and the final 18 on Sunday. Penn State will tee off from hole one beginning at 9:10 a.m. Saturday and the Nittany Lions are paired with Michigan and Northern Illinois for Saturday's rounds.
The Nittany Lions return to the Kepler Intercollegiate for the eighth-straight year. Penn State tied its best-ever finish at the Kepler last season, finishing in second place in the 16-team field. Lou Olsakovsky led the Nittany Lions at last year's Kepler, finishing tied for ninth at 2-over, 215.
Penn State will be represented by Patrick Sheehan, Olsakovsky, Jake Griffin, James Allen and Jimmy Meyers in the lineup this weekend, while Ben Smith will be playing as an individual. All six of those Nittany Lions finished in the top 26 at the Rutherford Intercollegiate last weekend.
Penn State is coming off a stellar showing at last weekend's Rutherford Intercollegiate in which the Nittany Lions won their seventh-straight Rutherford team title. The Nittany Lions entered Sunday in second place and four strokes back of then first-place No. 33 Michigan State. Penn State came out of the gates strong, gaining six strokes on the Spartans through the first six holes to surge into first place before making the turn. The Nittany Lions never allowed the Spartans to regain the lead the rest of the way, despite Michigan State pulling within a stroke as the final group reached the final hole. Sheehan parred the final hole, while Michigan State's golfer bogeyed, to give Penn State the two-stroke win over the Spartans.
Allen earned the individual title after defeating teammate Sheehan in a tiebreak, as the two Nittany Lions finished first and second atop the individual leaderboard. A total of three Nittany Lions finished in the top 10, with five in the top 15.
Live scoring for the Kepler Intercollegiate will be available on GolfStat.