WINTERGREEN, Va. - The Bridgewater College men's golf team played round-two of the all-individual Knights Invitational on Tuesday, and the Eagles ended up claiming three of the top-ten spots among forty six competitors. Scoring was tough at Wintergreen Resort this week as the players faced unusually high rough, but as a unit the Bridgewater squad made strong moves to close the tournament.
 
In the end, the Eagles were led by two freshmen. Walker Gillespie, coming off an impressive 3rd place finish in his first collegiate event, came into Tuesday tied for the lead. Through three holes today he had a two-stroke lead, but he hit his tee ball out of play on the tight 13th hole (after a shotgun start) and carded a quadruple-bogey. Those four strokes prevented a second-straight top-3 finish. After five birdies and an eagle on Monday, Gillespie came up with just one birdie in the final round, but he still finished 6th.
 
Will Layton, another Bridgewater rookie, jumped eight spots on the leaderboard after posting 75 today. He had a quiet round featuring good scrambling and thirteen pars (25 pars for the tournament, second most in the field), and he finished in a tie for 10th with teammate Brandon Washburn. Washnburn jumped thirteen spots on the leaderboard by posting 73 (+1) in the second round, fueled in part by an eagle on #1 -- a bounce-back after losing a ball greenside in the crazy rough on #18. The junior had a career-low 26 putts on Tuesday, and he commented that Wintergreen was as stern a test of golf as he has seen in his career.
 
Following the team trend, Alex Deas jumped ten spots after turning a first round 81 into a 74 for the second round. Better tee balls and big-number avoidance were key today. He played the final ten holes at -1 to finish 13th.
 
The biggest jump in the field today came from senior Cole Miller who chased a forgettable first round (91) with an impressive 74, featuring five birdies. Similarly, freshman Gage Hull, from Manhattan, Kansas, jumped seven spots after shaving eight strokes from his score to post 78. He lamented having four three-putts, though. Senior Nate Winebarger led the field in par-5 scoring this week (-4) and came in with a 79 today.
 
The Eagles were able to enter twelve total players in the Knights Invitational. Andrew Baugher went 79-80 (159), Miles Rhoden posted 78-81 (159) playing the final ten holes at +2, and Max Kingora shot 86-88 (174). Collin Rhodes' driver broke in warm-up and he went 82-92 for a total of (174). Ben Hutcheson turned in 92-96 (188). Cherry-picking the top five scores of the day, the Eagles would have posted 296 as a team score, which would be very competitive on such a challenging venue.
 
"We definitely did not expect the rough to be like a U.S. Open course," noted head coach John Rogers, "but the guys generally battled through it and made some strides today. Hopefully overcoming the conditions this week will make some of our future rounds seem somewhat easy in comparison."
 
The Eagles return to action in Williamsburg in two weeks.