MACON, Ga. - Middle Tennessee concluded a frustrating weekend of golf with a 12-over 300 during final round play at The Brickyard at Riverside and settled for a disappointing ninth-place finish at the Brickyard Collegiate Championship Tuesday.
The Blue Raiders came into the 13-team tournament after winning its last tournament and vaulting to No. 8 nationally in one poll and 26th in the other but that tournament, the Jaguar Intercollegiate, was Sept. 18 and Middle Tennessee was rusty following the 19-day layoff.
"It's not an excuse but we were not on our game and I learned a lesson as a first-year head coach," Middle Tennessee coach Whit Turnbow said. "I made a scheduling mistake in having 2-1/2 weeks off before this tournament. Our players gave great effort, they played hard and they tried but we just didn't have our best stuff during this entire tournament and I do believe the layoff hurt. We will go back to work and bounce back. Our team is too talented not to do that."
Rick Cochran put together the most consistent tournament of any of the Blue Raiders and finished 2-over 218, tied for 24th, after shooting a 73 Tuesday. Cochran is 2-under in the six rounds he has played this fall and has demonstrated consistency and solid play out of the gate.
Craig Smith tied for 34th with a 5-over 221 after shooting 3-over in the final round and Nick Bailes tied for 39th with a 6-over 222. Bailes was 1-over through two rounds but he finished with a 5-over 77 to miss out on a top 20 finish among the tough field.
Jason Millard (225) and Chas Narramore (226) were tied for 46th and 49th, respectively, and Kent Bulle ended up tied for 56th with a 228; however, the sophomore finished on a strong note. He shot 1-over Tuesday after playing at 11-over through the first two rounds.
Brickyard Collegiate Championship
Brickyard GC, Par-72
Final team scores
1 Georgia 287-283-280 831 -33
2 Clemson 277-276-286 839 -25
3 Georgia Tech 283-278-280 841 -23
4 South Carolina 280-284-287 861 -3
5 Kennesaw St. 301-283-286 870 +6
T6 Furman 290-286-296 872 +8
T6 Eastern Michigan 285-293-294 872 +8
8 Troy 295-292-296 883 +19
9 Middle Tennessee 294-290-300 884 +20
10 Akron 289-306-297 892 +28
11 Mercer 297-305-299 901 +37
12 Gonzaga 300-306-301 907 +43
13 Hartford 304-306-299 909 +45
MT Scores
T24 Rick Cochran 72-73-73 218 +2
T34 Craig Smith 73-73-75 221 +5
T39 Nick Bailes* 72-73-77 +6
T46 Jason Millard 74-72-79 225 +9
T49 Chas Narramore 75-72-79 226 +10
T56 Kent Bulle 76-79-73 +12
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