FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Steven Fisk fired a second consecutive 68 to advance as an individual to the final round of stroke play at the NCAA Men's Golf Championships Sunday at The Blessings Golf Club.
Fisk is 4-under for the tournament, in third place and three shots behind Matthew Wolff (-7) of Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma State's Austin Eckroat (-5) is in second. Fisk will tee off the first hole Monday at 2:23 p.m. ET, and the senior is paired with fellow individuals Chun An Yu from Arizona State and Gabe Lench from Liberty. Live coverage on The Golf Channel begins at 4 p.m. ET.
Fisk made birdie at holes 1, 5, 6 and 9 to shoot 32 on the front nine. He made a 15-footer to save par on 12 and ran into trouble on 13 when his tee shot came up short. He made bogey there and on 14, the toughest hole on the course today, but recovered with a birdie on the par-5 15th after coming up a little short on a long eagle effort. After pars at 16 and 17, he stuck his approach on 18 to 10 feet from the hole and rolled it in for a round-ending birdie.
"I'm going to stick to what I've been doing the last couple of days," said Fisk. "After yesterday's round, I felt like I had a good plan so I'm just going to try and stick to that."
"Every time a big moment has hit him in the face, he has stared it right back and performed very well, and today's no exception," said Georgia Southern coach
Carter Collins. "This golf course is so demanding on every single shot, and he's been unbelievable this whole week and persevered to the end. He birdied two of the last four holes to close the gap going into tomorrow. I know that was very important to him, and we can't wait to see what he does tomorrow."
The Eagles got off to a good start as a team and were even-par after five holes as they moved inside the team cut line. Jake Maples' chip in from behind the green for an eagle on 10 had the team 4-over for the round, but GS still had five of the toughest seven holes of the day to get through and fell back to the pack. GS managed to finish ahead of four top-30 teams, according to Golfstat rankings.
GS sees its team season come to a close, but Fisk is the lone senior on the roster playing this week, while two freshmen – Colin Bowles and Ben Carr – gained tremendous NCAA Championship Regional and Finals experience. The Eagles return 10 letterwinners to the 2019-20 roster, and six of those student-athletes saw action in nine or more tournaments this season.
Scores
Steven Fisk – 76-68-68=212 (-4), 3
Ben Carr – 76-81-76=233 (+17), T110
Brett Barron – 77-73-83=233 (+17), T110
Jake Maples – 79-77-82=238 (+22), T135
Colin Bowles – 81-82-80=243 (+27), 147
Team – 308-299-306=913 (+49), 26