Midshipmen Pair Earn Top-10 Finishes at Big 5 Golf Classic

Navy turned in the third-lowest score in the final round to move up from 14th to 10th.

	Second-year player Chip Hardie earned his first top-10 finish by tying for 10th at the Big 5 Classic.

Oct. 16, 2006

Final Stats

FLOURTOWN, Pa. - Led by a pair of top-10 individual performances, the Navy golf team finished 10th out of 15 teams at the Big 5 Classic played at the par-71 Philadelphia Cricket Club. Columbia paced the field with its two-round 591 (+23), while Lions teammates Chris Condello and Chris Arkin tied for medalist honors.

The Mids struggled to find the right touch in the opening round of play Saturday, finishing the day 41 strokes over par with a 325. Navy, however, regrouped and played a strong final round, moving up from 14th to finish 10th, just a stroke behind Saint Joseph's (313-308 - 621, +53) in ninth and two strokes behind George Washington (302-318 - 620, +52) in eighth.

"It's difficult to describe how difficult a course this is to play without seeing it," said Navy head coach Pat Owen. "The greens are so fast and sloping. We don't really have anything similar to practice on, so there was an adjustment period in that first round. I'm proud of how our guys came back and finished up the tournament."

Sophomore Ryan Wielgus (Bethesda, Md.) and Chip Hardie (Arnold, Md.) each shot par on the final day to earn top-10 finishes. Wielgus tied for seventh with an 8-over par 150, while Hardie was tied for 10th with a 9-over part 151. For Hardie, it marked his first top-10 finish of his career, while Wielgus earned his third top-10 finish.

Junior Chris Renninger (Darnestown, Md.) (83-77) took six strokes off his first round score to finish in 44th place with an 18-over par 160, followed by Eric Stinson (Spotsylvania, Va.) in 63rd (83-80 - 163) and Erich Schoen (Sylvania, Ohio) in 69th (89-78 - 167).

The Midshipmen will close out their fall campaign next Monday and Tuesday when they travel to Fort Worth, Texas to compete in the Service Academy Classic played at The Trophy Club.

### Go Navy ###