Three Bears Finish in Top-10 at Southern Invitational

Tuesday, March 2

Palm Beach, Fla. (The Falls GC)

All Day (18 Holes)

Mercer University

Southern Invitational

Photo by: Jen Jones

Three Bears Finish in Top-10 at Southern Invitational

3/2/2021 6:08:00 PM | Men's Golf

Tyler Copp (3rd), Lino Galdin (T-7th) and Martin Plukka (9th) earned top-10 finishes for the Bears

By: Stephen Waldman

PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Mercer men's golf team placed three of its golfers in the top-10 en route to tying for second place at the Southern Invitational at The Falls Club on Tuesday.

The Bears put together their best round since the 2019 Fall season with a 13-under par 275 in the final round to catapult up the leaderboard. Mercer finished tied for second with VCU and was six strokes ahead of 44th-ranked Campbell.

Four of Mercer's five players finished the final round under par, led by senior Tyler Copp whose 5-under par 67 was the lowest round of his collegiate career. The Ann Arbor, Mich., native paced the Bears for the second straight tournament as he captured third place. Lino Galdin tied for seventh in the tournament and finished 4-under par after carding a 70 over the final 18 holes. Martin Plukka earned ninth place honors after finishing 3-under par for both the final round and the entire tournament. Ethan Werblo carded a 3-under par 69 in the final round to force his way into the top-25 at the tournament.

Additonally, Copp, Galdin, Plukka and Werblo finished ahead of Campbell's Josh Hetherington who entered the tournament as the only individual ranked inside the top-100 at 95th.

Mercer Scorecard

T2	Mercer	293	284	275	-12	852
3	Tyler Copp	73	70	67	-6	210
T7	Lino Galdin	68	74	70	-4	212
9	Martin Plukka	75	69	69	-3	213
24	Ethan Werblo	78	71	69	+2	218
T57	Jonathan Parker	77	76	81	+18	234

COACH KAYDEN'S TAKE
"I'm proud of the team's efforts this week. It was a tremendous performance by our guys. Placing three guys in the top-10 at a tough tournament like this is pretty special.

"The greens were firm and fast today, and the guys responded well to that all day long. We responded well after winning last week and getting back up mentally and physically to perform at a high level for this event. We were able to finish ahead of a top-50 opponent which is an exciting accomplishment and something that we will look to build upon moving forward this season."

Up Next
The Bears have a 10-day break between competitions as they return to the links from March 12-14 at the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Lake Oconee – Great Waters next weekend.

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