Three State Players Finish in Top 20 at Gator Invite

Sunday, February 17

Gainesville, Fla. (Mark Bostick GC)

All Day

Mississippi State

Florida Gators Invitational

Three State Players Finish in Top 20 at Gator Invite

February 17, 2019 | Men's Golf

By Austin Coats, Student Assistant/Communications

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After a season-best performance in Saturday's second round of the Florida Gators Invitational, Mississippi State men's golf freshman Ford Clegg was able to seal his second straight top 15 finish Sunday in MSU's spring season opener.

Clegg shot a 4-under-66 in round two, followed by a 72 in the final stage to place tied for 15th, shooting a 1-over 211 weekend total.

Junior Peng Pichaikool also took a share of 15th when he rose 15 spots on the player leaderboard Sunday with a final round 68. With this result, Pichaikool has earned four consecutive top 15 performances.

Junior Garrett Johnson finished just one shot behind Pichaikool and Clegg to place tied for 18th. Johnson carded his second even 70 of the weekend on Sunday.

"I couldn't be prouder of our team after this week," MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith said. "We had to overcome a lot of adversity with one of our players down for the weekend. Our guys showed so much character and fight this week. We did a great job of hanging tough in the final round."

As a team, MSU finished 10th at the tough par-70, 6,701-yard Mark Bostick Golf Course.

Freshman Austin Vukovits played the second tournament of his career and finished tied for 82.

State senior Ross Bell also traveled to Gainesville with the team but was unable to compete due to a stomach bug.

No. 3 Vanderbilt was the only team to shoot better than par for the weekend as they won the event, led by individual winner Will Gordon.

Mississippi State has almost three weeks to prepare for its next event. March 9-10, the Bulldogs will play their first of three tournaments in as many weeks at the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate.

MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith:

"I couldn't be prouder of our team after this week. We had to overcome a lot of adversity with one of our players down for the weekend. Our guys showed so much character and fight this week. We did a great job of hanging tough in the final round. Things got hard for us in the middle of the final round, but we were able to steady the ship and finish strong. Peng had a huge finish for us and Garrett made a couple birdies coming in to give us another big performance. I know as a team this week will make us stronger the rest of the year. We have plenty to improve on and will have a couple of weeks to prepare for our next opportunity."

Florida Gators Invitational
1. Vanderbilt (282+275+282=839, -1)
2. Florida (282+282+276=840, E)
3. Liberty (285+277+280=842, +2)
T4. North Florida (277+287+282=846, +6)
T4. South Florida (277+286+283=846, +6)
6. Missouri (285+292+280=857, +17)
7. UCF (291+283+285=859, +19)
8. West Virginia (278+286+297=861, +21)
9. Coastal Carolina (288+289+285=862, +22)
10. Mississippi State (291+291+285=867, +27)
11. Michigan (297+291+280=868, +28)
12. Georgia Southern (285+293+293=871, +31)
13. Jacksonville (299+287+289=875, +35)
14. Princeton (293+291+299=883, +43
15. Southern Illinois (300+288+298=886, +46)

MSU Players
T15. Peng Pichaikool (70+73+68=211, +1)
T15. Ford Clegg (73+66+72=211, +1)
T18. Garrett Johnson (72+70+70=212, +2)
T82. Austin Vukovits (76+82+75=233, +23)
DNP - Ross Bell

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