GREENSBORO, N.C. - On Tuesday for the second round of the O'Brient-Jenson Memorial golf tournament the apparent winner was Pete Dye the designer of The Cardinal Golf Club, as most teams scored well above their team averages. The Bridgewater College men's team fell ten strokes short of their first round pace and finished 16th in a field loaded with nationally ranked teams. 
 
"I have to give the guys some credit because we arrived in Greensboro with a very young team," said Head Coach John Rogers, "and they played a decent round yesterday; but today this challenging course played even harder and it eventually got the best of us." After the first round the Eagles were in 10th place, ahead of five teams ranked nationally inside the top-40. And today, despite a sluggish start they hovered between 10th and 12th before stumbling late in the round.
 
Junior Brandon Washburn, the only player on this team to see this course before, paced the Eagles both days to finish 75-79(154). After a bogey on his ninth hole he turned at 6-over but rallied on the inward nine. He parred four holes to start the back nine and then faced with the two of toughest holes he came up with a pair of clutch birdies. At that point the Eagles were briefly in 9th place, but the closing holes were punishing most of the field including Washburn, who had two late doubles to finish +8.
 
Freshman Will Layton, on his first visit to The Cardinal, managed the tough conditions well and just had one big number each day. On his ninth hole today he caught a flyer lie that led to his ball jumping off a cart path and out of bounds. The resulting quadruple bogey was the only big blemish on his way to a final tally of 80.
 
Freshman Walker Gillespie chipped in for eagle on his 13th hole and he was just two over par at the time. Unfortunately his short game gave him trouble just as he was entering the tough closing stretch, which includes 4 of the 5 most challenging holes on the course today. He dropped eight strokes on the closing five holes to post 81.
 
Christian Carroll and Alex Deas tied each other for the second straight day this time completing the team score with a pair of 82's. Carroll had it going on the back nine as he was even through seven before a triple bogey on his 17th hole added to the team slide down the leaderboard. Deas reduced his large numbers from the first round but also had three fewer birdies during the second round.
 
Some of the top teams in the nation struggled to score on Tuesday; for example #9 Lynchburg and #10 Carnegie Mellon were both more than 30 strokes above average for their team scores today. Even after posting 322 in the final round the Eagles managed to finish better than they were seeded in the field. Rogers pointed out that despite the late slip-ups the Eagles finished ahead of #32 Christopher Newport University, the second time Bridgewater has upset that national powerhouse in a year. They also finished ahead of three conference foes including Randolph-Macon for the first time in a few years. "There are some highlights we can take away from this week as we conclude the fall season," said the coach, "but its a little bittersweet because we have never finished top 10 in this amazing field and it was within our grasp with only for holes to play. Hopefully this is something the guys will build on as they gain experience in collegiate competition."
 
Attesting Pete Dye's victory, only two of the elite teams in the field (which included 12 of the top 40 teams in the nation) broke 300 today and 290 by Methodist was good enough to give them the victory. Daniel Suter from Gettysburg won medalist honors shooting a two day total of 141(-1).
 
The Eagles return to action during their spring break trip in early March.