Rochester Captures 2017 Liberty League Men’s Golf Championship; Mulligan Claims Medalist Honors
2016-17 Liberty League Men's Golf Championship Results (PDF)
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. – After building a commanding 54-hole lead, the University of Rochester held off a final-round charge by Skidmore College en route to capturing the 2017 Liberty League Men’s Golf Championship Sunday at the par-72 Timber Banks Golf Course.
The Yellowjackets compiled a 72-hole team score of 1,233, good for an 11-stroke victory over the second-place Thoroughbreds (1,244). New York University (1,255) finished third, followed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1,265), St. Lawrence University (1,316), Clarkson University (1,318) and Hobart College (1,396).
With the victory, Rochester earns the Liberty League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, May 16-19, at Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. The NCAA field will be announced Monday, May 8.
The Liberty League title is the third for Rochester, which also won in 2007 and 2014.
The Liberty League men’s golf championship is a 72-hole tournament that included 36 holes in the fall (Sept. 24-25) and 36 holes in the spring (April 29-30). All four rounds were contested at Timber Banks with the scores from the fall carrying over to the spring portion of the championship. Rochester led from wire-to-wire as the Yellowjackets surged to a 14-stroke lead after the first round. The lead sat at just six strokes after the fall as Rochester (610) maintained a slim margin over NYU (616).
The Yellowjackets fired a 307 in the third round on Saturday for a 917 total and led by 14 strokes entering Sunday’s final round, a margin too great for NYU (931) and Skidmore (935) to overcome. Skidmore managed to close to within 10 strokes on the back nine, but Rochester maintained the margin to close out the victory. Skidmore shot a team-best 309 on Sunday, but was only able to trim seven strokes off an 18-stroke deficit.
Individually, University of Rochester freshman Jack Mulligan overcame a two-shot deficit with three holes to play to forge a three-way tie and a sudden-death playoff with Skidmore senior Mitchell Campbell and RPI senior Aaron Schauger. The trio finished with four-round scores of 302. Mulligan (75-74-75-78) parred his final three holes.
On the first playoff hole, the 379-yard par-4 first hole, Mulligan was the only golfer to par the hole in earning the sudden death victory.
Individual Leaderboard (players to complete all four rounds in the championship):
1t. Jack Mulligan, Rochester, 302 (won on first hole of sudden death playoff)
1t. Aaron Schauger, RPI, 302
1t. Mitchell Campbell, Skidmore, 302
4t. Jason Paek, Rochester, 308
4t. Teddy Badenhausen, Skidmore, 308
6. Mackenzie Nelson, Skidmore, 309
7. Kelly Sun, NYU, 313
8. Jona Scott, Rochester, 316
9t. Daniel Luftspring, Rochester, 319
9t. Erik Larrabee, RPI, 319
9t. William Hayden, St. Lawrence, 319
12t. Chris Rust, Clarkson, 321
12t. Matthew Shen, NYU, 321
12t. Lucas Oberholtzer, NYU, 321
15t. Eric Tarakjian, NYU, 322
15t. Jensen Li, NYU, 322
17. Thomas Conroy, Clarkson, 323
18. Nick Franki, RPI, 325
19. Andrew Kimball, St. Lawrence, 335
20. Brad Belote, Clarkson, 337
21. Ryan Flynn, St. Lawrence, 339
22. Max Britton, RPI, 342
23. Tyler Popp, Clarkson, 353
24. Zach McCloskey, Hobart, 355
25. Teagan Meehan, Hobart, 361
26. Justin Rockwell, Hobart, 366