HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – For the third-straight Great American Conference Golf Championship*, an Arkansas Tech men's golfer has come away with individual medalist honors. And for the second time in as many years, the honor goes to
Henry Frizzell.
FINAL RESULTS
Frizzell's second conference tournament title saw the sophomore clear the 45-golfer field by a single stroke as he finished with a two-under (214). The Frisco, Texas native opened his tournament with an even-par 72 and tied for second on the player leaderboard. A day later, Frizzell matched his opening round sat alone in third place.
On Championship Tuesday, Frizzell started off shaky with consecutive bogeys on his first two holes. He got one of those strokes back on the Par-4 No. 3 where he made birdie. After making par on his next hole, Frizzell sunk an eagle on the Par-4 No. 5 to flip his round from one-over to one-under.
He later went back even on his round but closed the front-nine with a birdie to make the turn at one-under. He then got to two-under with a birdie on the Par-5 No. 10.
Frizzell remained steady throughout the back-nine with pars on six of the next seven holes. His lone blemish heading into the final hole was a bogey on the Par-4 No. 13.
Sitting at one-under and holding a one-stroke lead over Nick Shaprio and Josh McNulty of Henderson State, Frizzell hit the final hole of the tournament.
Playing in the second-to-last grouping with Shapiro, Frizzell was in position to apply the pressure on his opponents if he could drop a stroke. He would do just that and birdied No. 18 to put him two-under for the tournament. Shaprio also birdied the last hole, but remained on shot back of Frizzell and tied for second.
The tournament was not quite won for Frizzell, however, as he had to wait for the final group that featured his teammate
Santiago De La Fuente, SWOSU's Gregor Weck and Henderson's McNulty to finish out. Both Weck and De La Fuente were out of contention for the individual medalist by the time they hit No. 18, but McNulty was still very much in play as he was at two-under for the round and one-under for the tournament heading into the final hole.
McNulty, who bogeyed the hole on Sunday and made birdie on Monday, made par on Tuesday to hold at one-under for the tournament, giving Frizzell the standalone spot atop the team leaderboard.
Outside of Frizzell's individual win, the Wonder Boys as a team finished third behind Henderson State and Southwestern Oklahoma.
Tech and SWOSU were tied for the lead after the first round at seven-over (295) and Henderson was just behind in third, two shots back. After play on Tuesday, there was slight movement with SWOSU shooting two-under as a team and grabbing a two-shot lead over Tech, who shot even-par and a three-shot lead over Henderson, who cut off a stroke from their total.
Tuesday's final round saw both Henderson and SWOSU go under par and eventually tie at the end of regulation play. Henderson State would win the team playoff to capture the team title. Tech was two-over on the round and finished six shots off pace.
Other individual results for the Wonder Boys saw De La Fuente finish sixth overall at one-over (217).
Francois Jacobs and
Holden Hamilton each tied for 12
th at five-over (221).
Hayes Hamilton rounded out the lineup for Tech at the championship and finished tied for 31
st at 10-over.
Despite not winning the GAC Championship Tournament, the Wonder Boys are all-but assured a spot in the upcoming NCAA Midwest/Central Regional Tournament coming up at the beginning of May.
In each of the first two regional rankings released by the NCAA, the Wonder Boys have been ranked first. There should be one final ranking prior to the official selection of participating teams.
* - 2020 tournament was not played due to onset of COVID-19
