Mercer University
Cardinal Intercollegiate
Men's Golf Third at Cardinal Intercollegiate
9/23/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. – Freshman Emmanuel Kountakis shined in his first collegiate competition on Monday, leading the Mercer men's golf team in the opening two rounds of the Cardinal Intercollegiate at the Cardinal Club. Kountakis fired rounds of 73 (+1) and 71 (-1) to help the Bears wrap up the day in third place on the team leaderboard.
As a team, Mercer opened with a 298 (+10) and rebounded with a 284 (-4) in the second round to finish the day eight strokes behind Austin Peay for second place. Host Louisville leads the event with a 36-hole total of 567.
"We couldn't have had two more opposite rounds today," Mercer head coach Steve Bradley said. "We played unbelievably horrible in the first round and I told them we needed to have the low round of the day in the afternoon, and we got close to that. As frustrated as I was, I was just as happy and proud of the way they responded in the afternoon."
On the back nine of his second round, Kountakis had a red-shot stretch of four birdies in five holes to vault into a tie for 13th place at the day's end. His second round 71 was only outdone by senior teammate James Beale, who carded a 67 (-5) in the second round and is currently tied for eighth place at 145 (78-67).
"Whether you look at James shooting 67 or Emmanuel being our low player, you can take a lot of positives from the way we competed," Bradley contined. "That's a new feature for us - to have a freshman be the low man."
Junior Trey Rule is also tied for 18th place at 145 after posting scores of 73 (+1) and 72 (E). Senior Hans Reimers booked scores of 77 (+5) and 74 (+2) and is tied for 39th while freshman Sean Smothers is tied for 46th after shooting 75 (+3) and 77 (+5).
The final round of the Cardinal Intercollegiate is scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. start on Tuesday. Live scoring is available at www.birdiefire.com.
