| WEB |
|
|
May 17, 1997
HOT SPRINGS, Va. - Richard Coughlan shot a 71 and junior Joey Maxon added a 72 to pace Clemson to a second-place finish at the NCAA East Regional at the Cascades Course at Hot Springs, VA. Clemson finished with a team score of 876, three strokes behind Auburn, who had a tournament best 280 on Saturday.
Clemson was in second place, one stroke behind Wake Forest, heading into the final round. The Tigers defeated Wake Forest by six strokes on Saturday, but Auburn was 12 strokes better than Clemson and eight strokes better than every other team on Saturday.
The top 11 teams in the 23 team field advance to the NCAA Finals at Conway Farms Country Club in Lake Forest, IL May 28-31. Five ACC teams advanced and five SEC teams made the 11-team group. East Tennessee State was the only non-ACC or SEC team to advance.
Clemson was led throughout the tournament by junior Charles Warren, who had a 213 for the entire affair, good enough for third place. Warren had a four-stroke lead heading into the final round, but shot a 76 on Saturday. Still, it was Warren's fourth straight top 10 finish. Earlier he was the ACC Champion. Tim Clark of NC State, one of the players Warren beat out at the ACC Tournament last month, won the regional title with a 209 total. Jason Buha of Duke had a 210 to finish second.
Joey Maxon finished with a 72 on Saturday and was tied for eighth for the tournament. Coughlan who progressed from 77 to 74 to 71 in the final round, finished tied for 24th. He had five birdies, but two double bogies in his round on Saturday.
One of the keys for Clemson's second place finish was the play of Elliot Gealy, who had a 73 on Saturday. It tied for his second low round of the year.
This was the fourth time in the last five years that Clemson had finished first or second in the regional. The Tigers will be making their 16th straight NCAA national appearance, one of just four teams in the nation that can make that claim.
Clemson Individual Scores Individual Rounds Tot Place Charles Warren 70-67-76 213 3rd Joey Maxon 73-72-72 217 8th Richard Coughlan 77-74-71 222 24th Jonathan Byrd 75-76-78 229 66th Elliot Gealy 80-77-73 230 70th Team 295-289-292 876 2nd
  
|
