Category | Sports

Eighth place finish at A-Sun for men’s golf

Published on April 28, 2009 by Justin Hobday

The Owls dropped five spots in the standings to finish eighth at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Wednesday.

Michael Tulacz walked off the green for the last time as an Owl at the A-Sun Championships. Photo courtesy of KSU SID.

Blustery weather caused playing conditions to toughen throughout the third round. KSU started the round in third place, but turned in the highest round of the day at 318.

“The first two days were pretty good. We played a lot of solid golf,” said head coach Blake Smart. “The last day was a really tough finish, and a rotten way to end the year.”

Michael Tulacz held the individual lead with eight holes to play in the round, but an eight over par back-nine caused Tulacz to tumble into a tie for eighth. The senior was playing his final round for KSU.

“It was frustrating because I had the individual lead with eight holes to go,and a couple of bad golf shots coming in cost me a lot more than they would have on a normal day,” said Tulacz.

J.P. Putnam and Jeff Karlsson scored the Owls’ only two rounds in the 70’s. Karlsson finished in a tie for 14th after shooting a 78 to finish the tournament at 221, only three strokes from a top ten finish.

Putnam shot a final-round 79 to finish the tournament tied for 37th with a 227.  Putnam shot the most consistent round for the Owls scoring par or better on 14 of 18 holes, and had a shot at cracking the top 20 until a nine on the par-four 16th squashed the idea.

“I’ve never played in winds that were that severe,” said Tulacz. “They had to be 20-30 mph pretty steady, and the were gusting upwards of 40 mph. It didn’t take a very bad golf shot to turn into a very bad hole.”

Matthew Nagy and Chad Wilson finished 40th and 53rd respectively. Nagy shot a final round 81, and Wilson succumbed to the difficult conditions firing an 83.

The A-Sun Championship marked the end of the Owls’ season, and the end of reclassification for the athletic program.

“We’ve actually been post-season eligible for four years now,” said Smart. “Schoolwide we’ll benefit from brand name recognition going up, and hopefully that will help us with recruiting.”

Tulacz is the only senior departing from the team. The Owls will return with a deep roster, and a heightened awareness of the entire athletic program could help bring in some impact recruits.

Top 10 for Tulacz in final collegiate event

Michael Tulacz salvaged a top ten finish after flirting with the individual title at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship.

Tulacz started the final round with a share of the lead after shooting 69 in the first two rounds. After the front nine of the final round he held the lead by himself, but a back-nine 44 led to a final round 80 and tie for eighth.

“[Tulacz] was an immediate impact kid for the team,” said head coach Blake Smart. “He unfortunately never got a win in college, but was very close. He holds almost every significant record at KSU since we moved to division I.”

Tulacz came to KSU after a year at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkhill, N.Y. where he was selected as an NCAA Division II All-American. He spent much of his junior season ranked in the top 50, and was as high as ninth in the national rankings.

“The decision to come to Kennesaw was one of the best decisions I could have made for my golf career,” said Tulacz. Being here and playing against the competition I’ve gotten to play against has done nothing but help my golf game, and getting a degree along the way is an added bonus.”

Twice during his junior season, Tulacz posted the lowest 18-hole score in KSU division I history. He shot the school’s division I best 54-hole total as well.

“He’ll be difficult to replace,” said Smart. “We probably can’t replace him with just one kid, but we’ve got some good players coming in, and hopefully we can use what he has done the last three years to keep the program moving forward.”