APSU Sports Information
Savannah, GA – A second-round surge finds Austin Peay State University (APSU) men’s golf atop the leaderboard at the William & Mary-hosted Invitational at Savannah Harbor with 18 holes remaining.
The Govs backed a pedestrian 298 opening round with a white-hot 280 in round two, moving from ninth to three shots clear of the field in first place; Austin Peay’s 18-stroke improvement from one round to the next was second-best of the 18-team field.
The Govs will have to fend off a pair of Ohio Valley Conference foes, with Jacksonville State tied at 581 with North Dakota State for second, Belmont lurking at 582 and the host Tribe six strokes back at 584.
Junior Michael Busse is Austin Peay’s lone representative in the top-10, following an opening-round 74 with a 69, sitting at a one-under 143 overall. His four-under 4.50 average on par-5 holes is tied for the tournament-best.
Part of Busse’s round-two recovery involved an improvement on the back-nine; after shooting a three-over 39 in the morning round, he was a three-under on the back in round two, including a birdie on the par-3 No. 17—one of nine in the 95-player field through the first two rounds.
Four of the five Governors in the field improved their standing from Round One to Round Two, but none more than sophomore Chase Korte. After an opening-round 77 left him near the back of the pack, Korte’s second-round 68 equaled the best individual round by anyone over the first 36 holes and moved him all the way up to 13th (77-68—145). He averaged a team-best 2.75 on par-3 holes and sank a team-high eight birdies for the Governors.
Freshman Micah Knisley was the most consistent Governor, shooting matching 73s to sit just inside the top-20 with a two-over 146. Two of the 29 birdies canned on the par-5 No. 13 belonged to Knisley, with his second-chirper on No. 13 the last of three straight birdies on his two-under, second-round back-nine.
Similar to Korte, junior Austin Lancaster improved by 10 strokes in round two (80-70—150), making a 32-spot move up the leaderboard; he also sank a team-best 24 pars over the first two rounds. Sophomore Garrett Whitfield rounded out the Austin Peay lineup, holding the fort during his teammates first-round struggles thanks to an opening-round 74 which included a birdie on the par-4 No. 2, one of just five birdies on the day at No. 2, which played out as the courses second-hardest over the opening 36 holes.
Final-round action in Savannah is slated to begin 7:00am (CT), Sunday, with the Govs paired with Jacksonville State, North Dakota State and Belmont.
