Joe Deraney was three birdies away from winning his first individual college tournament crown Tuesday at the Matlock Intercollegiate. The junior from Statesboro, Ga., stood on the 12th tee box of The Grasslands Golf Club two shots down.
Despite his calm nerves and quiet composure Deraney parred the next six holes and three-putted the 18th for a bogey, which dropped him to a fourth place finish.
“I knew I needed to make birdies to try to win,” a disappointed Deraney said. “I just chose my spots to be aggressive, you’ve got to remember that it is a team event, so if I had been too aggressive and I messed up, then our team would have been hurt.”
The University of Memphis won the 15-team tournament with an even par 864. State finished in 11th place with a 29-over 893.
Junior Carl Sutton delivered a surprise performance on the final day. His two-under par 70 was 10 shots better than his first round 80.
“Carl’s ability to score is probably his best asset,” head coach Clay Homan said. “He’s got a great short game, it’s just a matter of him keeping the ball in play and hitting more greens.”
Sutton finished tied with teammate Tim Satow for 43rd place. Sutton’s 70 and Deraney’s 72 helped push the Dawgs from 13th place, after 36 holes, up two spots.
The Bulldogs will have almost a month break until the Conrad Rehling Spring Invitational, hosted by the University of Alabama March 12-14.
“We have three weeks,” Homan said. “We’ll spend that time really working on our short game. You can really make up a lot of strokes in the short game.”