Behind the effort of freshman Tee-K Kelly, the Ohio State men’s golf team placed third out of 14 teams at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate on Sunday in Zionsville, Ind.
Kelly placed fourth individually at the tournament with a season-low score of 68 for the first round, 72 for the second round and 70 for the final round.
Kelly improved from the Marshall Invitational last week, where he tied for 23rd place with two other Buckeyes, and he credits his short game for his success.
“Definitely my short game helped me, I have been working pretty hard on it lately and it paid off,” Kelly said. “I had some pretty good shots that saved me from making some pretty big numbers.”
Sophomore Boo Timko finished after Kelly in fifth place with a score of 69 for the first round, a career-low 66 for the second round and 76 for the final round.
Timko said he could have finished better but is still pleased with his finish.
“I played really clean the first day, but the last day I let it get away from me,” Timko said. “I would have liked to finish better than I did, but overall I am happy with it.”
Last week’s team leader and 2012 Big Ten Freshman of the Year sophomore Grant Weaver fell behind, tying for 17th place with a final score of 219, adding on 10 strokes from last week.
Freshman Michael Bernard tied for 36th place with a final score of 225 and senior Matt Turner tied for 59th place with a final score of 230.
Buckeyes coach Donnie Darr said he was happy with the results but hoped the Buckeyes could have placed higher than third.
“I don’t think you are ever happy to finish third but overall I am really pleased with how we played,” Darr said. “I thought we did a lot of really good things that first day, but we didn’t quite handle being in position to win as well as I hoped in the final round, but we were playing two freshmen and two sophomores who haven’t really been out there much.”
The Buckeyes will get another chance to place higher when the team travels to Glencoe, Ill., for the Windon Memorial, Sept. 23-24.