One Spot Away

After all the scores came in of round two at the NCAA DII Men's Golf Championships, the Pirates moved up one spot to ninth. Of course, the target spot is eighth. So now head coach Michael Butler and the Pirates know what they need to do tomorrow - make up three strokes on eighth-place Indiana (Pa.) and then outplay the rest of the schools behind Armstrong in the standings.

It is a very bunched leaderboard from that standpoint. Nova Southeastern, who leads by seven strokes, is definitively in the match play field. However second is +21 (Chico State) and they are only 11 strokes ahead of eighth. Thirteen strokes separate USC Aiken, who is in 15th, and eighth as well.  Take a good look at the standings as they are right now. There will be plenty of jostling and movement throughout the day tomorrow.

The Pirates tee off at 12:55 and will be playing with seventh-place Malone and eighth-place Indiana (Pa.). Armstrong will also tee off on No. 10 first, which helped today as the Pirates shaved 12 strokes off of how they played the back nine from day one. Of the 208 birdies that have been recorded during the tournament so far, only 55 have come on the back nine. That is significant.

Also, enough can't be said about the round fifth-year senior Justin Wylie put up today. His even-par 71 was the third-best round he has shot in his career at Armstrong, and arguably came on the biggest stage. That round kept the Pirates within striking distance of advancing to match play, the goal for Armstrong coming into the national championships.

So join us on Wednesday for the final round of stroke play and root on the Pirates to the knockout stages !