ROCKY FACE, Ga. (Sep. 17, 2006) -- The Georgia State men's golf team entered the 2006 Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic with a bulls-eye on their back as defending champs. The Panthers held their own and while they did not come away with another title they did add another top 5 finish to their resume against a tournament loaded with great teams.
Entering this year's tournament, 10 of the 18 teams were ranked in the top 25. The Panthers were able to finish ahead of five top 25 teams including Wake Forest who was ranked ahead of the Panthers at No. 9 and finished in 11th-place. Alabama took the overall title this year finishing firing an impressive 23-under for the tournament. The Tide finished six shots ahead of Clemson, who shot 17-under.
"We played solid again today," said head coach Matt Clark. "The only problem was we had to play great in order to have a shot at repeating as champion."
The Panthers finished tied with Florida in fifth-place at 8-under for the tournament with an 856 total score after shooting a 4-under 284 round on the final day. Junior Joel Sjoholm led the charge for the Panthers firing a 2-under round of 70. Sjoholm finished tied for ninth place at 5-under for the individual title, which was won by Georgia's Chris Kirk at 11-under. Senior Ben Taylor also finished the tournament under par at 2-under after a 1-under round on Sunday. Taylor also earned a top 25 finish coming in tied at 23. Freshman Tom Sherreard had a tough final day finishing at 6-over and 1-over in his first collegiate tournament. Sophomore Mark Haastrup battled with his game the entire tournament but finally closed out the final day with his best round of the tournament at 1-under.
"It was great to have Joel and Ben finish at under par for the tournament," Clark said. "Tom played solid in his first collegiate tournament and just missed out on finishing at under par. This was a great way to start the season and we now know what we need to work on to get ready for our next tournament."
The Panthers next tournament will be Oct. 9-10 in Birmingham, Ala. at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate.
Team Results (Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic, The Farm, Rocky Face, Ga.)
1. Alabama -- 276 285 280 841 −23
2. Clemson -- 278 280 289 847 −17
T3. Georgia -- 295 278 281 854 −10
T3. Georgia Tech -- 289 287 278 854 −10
T5. Georgia State -- 286 286 284 856 −8
T5. Florida -- 293 276 287 856 −8
7. Tennessee -- 290 281 288 859 −5
8. East Tennessee St. -- 290 289 281 860 −4
9. Vanderbilt -- 290 294 278 862 −2
10. North Carolina State -- 285 287 294 866 +2
11. Wake Forest -- 289 289 290 868 +4
12. TCU -- 299 288 286 873 +9
13. Duke University -- 289 295 291 875 +11
14. Augusta State -- 289 289 298 876 +12
15. Auburn -- 297 285 296 878 +14
16. Texas Tech -- 297 294 293 884 +20
17. South Carolina -- 309 290 287 886 +22
18. Texas -- 307 305 292 904 +40
Georgia State individual results
T9. Joel Sjoholm -- 73-68-70= 211
T23. Ben Taylor -- 70-73-71= 214
T32. Tom Sherreard -- 70-69-78= 217
T48. Mark Haastrup -- 73-76-71= 220
82. Derek Oakey -- 82-76-72= 230
