Mercer Finishes Sixth at Kenny Perry Invitational

Tuesday, October 11

Bowling Green, Ky.

Mercer University

Kenny Perry Invite

Mercer Finishes Sixth at Kenny Perry Invitational

10/11/2016 5:06:00 PM | Men's Golf

Complete Results

By: Patrick Walsh

COMPLETE RESULTS

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Justin Connelly carded an even-par 72 in the final round and recorded a top-three finish as action came to a close Tuesday at the Kenny Perry Invitational hosted by Western Kentucky University.

Connelly fired 11 consecutive birdies Tuesday as he became the first Mercer golfer to register a top-three finish this season, tying for third at 3-under-par 213 over the three-round, 54-hole tournament. He was aided by a 3-under-par average on Par 5 holes while teammate Jerry Ren led the field with a 5-under-par average on all Par 5s.

MERCER SCORECARD
5.	Mercer	+28	892
T-3.	Justin Connelly	-3	213
T-22.	Jerry Ren	+7	223
T-27.	Hayes Rule	+9	225
T-39.	Brennan Bogdanovich (I)	+13	229
T-57.	Kiko Rosete	+19	235
T-64.	Stanton Schorr	+24	240

MERCER ON THE TEAM LEADERBOARD
The Bears dropped two spots to sixth overall Tuesday, finishing at 28-over-par. That beat Southern Conference foe Samford (+41) by 13 strokes and fell just five strokes shy of Cleveland State. Eastern Kentucky won the team title at 4-under-par.

MERCER ON THE INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD
Justin Connelly recorded the first top-three finish of any Bears golfer this season as he tied for third at 3-under-par. The senior tied with Eastern Kentucky's Noah Combs on the individual leaderboard. Western Kentucky's Billy Tom Sargent won the individual title at 8-under-par.

COACH KAYDEN'S COMMENTS
On Justin Connelly's finish:
"Congratulations to Justin Connelly on a top-three finish. He has put the work ethic in, he is a competitive kid and we are excited with what he is going to bring to the program this year. He hit a lot of good shots this year and he played a great tournament on what will probably end up being one of the more difficult courses we will play on all year."

On the team's finish:
"We just need to play a 54-hole event. We are setting ourselves up well, putting ourselves in good position going into the final round and we are just not quite, as a team, playing consistently enough in our lineup to close the door. The positive is we are putting ourselves in position to have some really good tournaments. We are just not quite closing the door in a 54-hole event. WE have to continue to work at it and get better."

On beating a Southern Conference team:
"We did beat another Southern Conference school and have now started the year with two wins over Southern Conference schools and that is encouraging."

NEXT TOURNAMENT
Mercer will now travel to Dickson, Tennessee on October 18-17 to compete at the F&M Bank Intercollegiate hosted by Austin Peay.

How to Follow the Bears:
For complete coverage of Mercer Men's Golf, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerGolf (Twitter) and @MercerBears (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.