Petronio's Career Low Propels #MGolf To Championship Sweep at Shoal Creek

Tuesday, September 30

Birmingham, Ala. (Shoal Creek CC)

9:24 a.m.

University of North Florida

Shoal Creek Intercollegiate

Petronio's Career Low Propels #MGolf To Championship Sweep at Shoal Creek

9/30/2014 9:27:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: North Florida Athletics

Final Results (pdf)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Overcoming a six shot final round deficit, the North Florida men's golf team sparked by senior Joey Petronio's career low 66 (-6) rallied past two-time defending national champion Alabama to capture the Shoal Creek Invitational hosted by Graeme McDowell on Tuesday.

The Ospreys fired the lowest score of the final round (287) en route to finishing with a 54-hole total of 859 (-5). Petronio claimed the second individual medalist title of his career after blistering the course for a three-round 205 (-11). The total bettered Petronio's previous tournament best by three strokes while the tournament crown marked the 45th team title in UNF program history.

"Joey played great today and earned a really good victory," said 10th-year head coach Scott Schroeder, who has now led the Ospreys to 13 team titles in his tenure. "With three Top 10 individual finishers and everyone else grinding to the finish, we gave ourselves a great chance for the win. I'm really proud of the bounce back we made from a disappointing performance in our opening tournament. Being able to defeat Alabama on a course they play regularly is a great win and shows exactly what this team is capable of doing."

Joining Petronio among the individual leaders were senior teammate MJ Maguire, who tied for fifth at 214, and junior Taylor Hancock in ninth at 216. Maguire and Hancock posted rounds of 71 and 75, respectively.

Junior Austin Padova finished tied for 31st at 225 following a final round 75 and reshirt freshman Dillon Woods posted a 76 to finish tied for 40th at 228. Playing as an individual, freshman Jordan Batchelor finished tied for 31st at 225 in his collegiate debut.

In team competition, UNF bested Bama by three shots as the Tide finished with a tournament tally of 862 (-2). Tournament host UAB finished third at 864 followed by Ole Miss (878), Memphis (879), Georgia Southern (880), Southeastern Louisiana (884), UCF (886), Liberty (902), Georgetown (915), Mississippi State (925) and Samford (931). Petronio raced past Bama's Tom Lovelady midway through the final round and then held off a late surge to win the medalist title by a single stroke.

North Florida will take almost three weeks off before returning to action on Oct. 19-21 at the prestigious Tavistock Collegiate Invitational in Orlando, Fla.

1 - North Florida (288-284-287=859)
1 - Joey Petronio (71-68-66=205)
T5 - MJ Maguire (71-72-71=214)
9 - Taylor Hancock (70-71-75=216)
T31 - Austin Padova (75-75-75=225)
T31 - Jordan Batchelor (7275-78=225) -- Individual
T40 - Dillon Woods (78-74-76=228)