Men's Golf 11th As Freshman Clegg Shines at Florida Invite

Saturday, February 16

Gainesville, Fla. (Mark Bostick GC)

All Day

Mississippi State

Florida Gators Invitational

Clegg fired a season-best 66 in round two.

Photo by: Blake Williams/MSU Athletics

Men's Golf 11th As Freshman Clegg Shines at Florida Invite

February 16, 2019 | Men's Golf

Live Results

by Austin Coats, Student Assistant

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Mississippi State men's golf freshman Ford Clegg shot a season-best 66 in round two Saturday afternoon to put himself among the top players in the field at the Florida Gators Invitational.

"Ford gave us a great round in the afternoon that we had to have," MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith said.

Clegg, tied for sixth at 1-under-par going into Sunday's final round, was State's best player Saturday. The Bulldogs collectively shot 22-over through two rounds of play, to sit 11th at the par-70, 6,701-yard Mark Bostick Golf Course.

State was balanced by strong individual rounds. Junior Peng Pichaikool shot an even 70 in round one, while Clegg and junior Garrett Johnson (70) carried MSU in the afternoon.

"I'm really proud of our fight today," Smith said. "The conditions got pretty tough at the end of the first round and into the second round. I thought we handled them very well."

Senior Ross Bell did not play due to a stomach bug.

The Golf Dawgs will look to move up in the final round on Sunday, as they begin play at 7:45 a.m. CT at the 10th hole. Live results will be available via Golfstat.com.

No. 3 Vanderbilt leads the field after a 3-under-par performance, while first place on the player leaderboard is a two-way tie between Will Gordon (Vanderbilt) and Phillip Knowles (North Florida).

MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith

"I'm really proud of our fight today. The conditions got pretty tough at the end of the first round and into the second round. I thought we handled them very well. We came out strong in our second round but, unfortunately, we didn't do a good enough job of finishing today. We had a great opportunity to put ourselves in a really good position going into the final round and let it slip coming down the stretch. Peng held us together in the first round. Ford gave us a great round in afternoon that we had to have. Garrett gave us a hard fought 70 that was big for us. There will be no excuses. We need to come out tomorrow ready to play and ready to take advantage of the opportunity in front of us."

Florida Gators Invitational
1. Vanderbilt (282+275=557, -3)
2. Liberty (285+277=562, +2)
3. South Florida (277+286=563, +3)
T4. Florida (282+282=564, +4)
T4. West Virginia (278+286=564, +4)
T4. North Florida (277+287=564, +4)
7. UCF (291+283=574, +14)
T8. Missouri (285+292=577, +17)
T8. Coastal Carolina (288+289=577, +17)
10. Georgia Southern (285+293=578, +18)
11. Mississippi State (291+291=582, +22)
12. Princeton (293+291=584, +24)
13. Jacksonville (299+287=586, +26)
T14. Michigan (297+291=588, +28)
T14. Southern Illinois (300+288=588, +28)

MSU Players
T6. Ford Clegg (73+66=139, -1)
T20. Garrett Johnson (72+70=142, +2)
T30. Peng Pichaikool (70+73=143, +3)
82. Austin Vukovits (76+82=158, +18)
DNP - Ross Bell

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