Hilton Head, S.C. – Furman senior
Keller Harper fired a tournament-low score of 67 on Tuesday en route to winning the Pinnacle Bank Intercollegiate at Palmetto Hall from the par 72, 6918-yard Palmetto Hall Golf and Country Club.
Harper moved up four positions on the individual leaderboard Tuesday and finished tied for first with High Point's Brandon Einstein to earn co-champion honors at 4-under par 212 (74-71-67).
As a team, the Paladins carded the lowest score of the day and finished in third place following a final round 285. Furman recorded a two-day score of 875 with rounds of 293-297-285.
"We are going to take a lot of positives from this week while learning what we still have to continue working on," said head coach
Matt Davidson. "We led the tournament in birdies and definitely showed how high our potential is going forward. So happy to see Keller pick up the third collegiate win in his career. An amazing start to the spring for him."
A native of Atlanta, Ga., Harper carded seven birdies during his final round, highlighted by a 4-under 32 on the front nine, to win his third career tournament. He has now tied Davidson, a former Paladin men's golfer, who also won three tournaments from 1999-04. Harper is one victory away from matching Ken Ezell (1974-77) and Todd White (1987-90) for second all-time in wins.
Harper paced Furman, and the tournament field, with an 8-under 4.33 stroke average on par 5 holes and tied teammate
Reynolds Lambert with 14 birdies. He also compiled a 1-under 2.92 stroke average in par 3 scoring.
All five Paladins improved their final round score by at least one stroke on Tuesday.
Jack Crosby recorded a top-10 performance finishing tied for seventh with a final round 73, giving him a total score of 218 (71-74-73).
Walker Crosby (78-75-72) and
Ross Funderburke (75-77-73) both finished tied for 34
th place with combined scores of 225. Crosby posted a final round 72 and Funderburke followed with a 73. Lambert improved his final round score by eight strokes, turning in a 74 to put him in a tie for 53
rd position at 229 (73-82-74).
Furman led the Pinnacle Bank Intercollegiate at Palmetto Hall in par 3 scoring (7-under, 2.88 stroke average) and birdies (54). The Paladins also ranked second in par 5 scoring at 10-under par to go with a 4.83 stroke average.
Charleston Southern won the Pinnacle Bank Intercollegiate at Palmetto Hall by two strokes over Augusta at 7-over 871.
Furman returns to the course March 1-2 traveling to Pinehurst, N.C. for the Wake Forest Invitational.
