State Finishes In Top 5, Pichaikool The Runner-Up In Louisville

Sunday, September 16

Louisville, Ky. (Univ. of Louisville GC)

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Mississippi State

Louisville Cardinals Challenge

State Finishes In Top 5, Pichaikool The Runner-Up In Louisville

September 16, 2018 | Men's Golf

Golfstat

by Austin Coats, Student Assistant/Communications

SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. – Despite struggling in the final round of the Louisville Cardinals Challenge on Sunday, the Mississippi State men's golf team earned the seventh top 5 finish of the young Dusty Smith era.

MSU placed fifth via a three-round 2-under-850 total at the par-71, 7,101-yard University of Louisville Golf Club, led by a runner-up finish from Peng Pichaikool, his third time placing second in three seasons.

"I am proud of how we competed all week," MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith said. "Today the wind was up and the hole locations were tough so we knew we had to stay patient and in our process. I thought we did a nice job of that on our front side, but the back end was tough for us."

"This was a great learning experience for all of us. You learn a lot about your team when you play yourself into the final grouping in a final round."

Pichaikool shot a stellar 12-under-201, marking a career-best shot total for a tournament. The junior had previously shot a 202 twice; at the par-72 Lone Star Invitational as a freshman and at the par-71 Bearcat Invitational as a sophomore.

Pichaikool now has two top 10 finishes in as many events to start the 2018-19 campaign after taking seventh at the Carmel Cup earlier in September and has shot even or better in all six of MSU's rounds for a 67.83 stroke average.

The Golf Dawgs carded a 4-under-280 in Friday's round one of the tournament and improved with a 279 in round two on Saturday before Sunday's 291 score.

Freshman Ford Clegg followed Pichaikool as MSU's next-best player and shot 4-under through the first two days, but finished tied for 32nd with a 2-over-215.

Junior Garrett Johnson was right behind Clegg, taking a share of 38th at 3-over-par. Both he and sophomore Hunter Hammett, who tied for 65th at 8-over, shot 1-over-72s on Sunday.

Senior Austin Rose filled out Smith's lineup card at 10-over.

Playing as an individual, Griffin Agent tied for 58th with a 6-over-219.

Duke swept the team and individual titles as Blue Devil Alex Smalley maintained his lead on the player leaderboard.

The Bulldogs have a long break before the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate on October 8-9. State placed seventh as team while Pichaikool finished eighth at the same event in 2017.

For more information on the Bulldogs, follow the program on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching @HailStateMG.

MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith:

"I am proud of how we competed all week. Today the wind was up and the hole locations were tough so we knew we had to stay patient and in our process. I thought we did a nice job of that on our front side, but the back end was tough for us. We started thinking about finishing and didn't do a great job of staying in our moment. This was a great learning experience for all of us. You learn a lot about your team when you play yourself into the final grouping in a final round. Garrett and Hunter were tough all day and gave us two big rounds. Peng did a nice job overcoming a couple of mistakes to finish as the runner-up. Going forward, we need to make sure we learn from this and become better from it. We have three weeks to prepare for our next event, and we are looking forward to getting back to work."