Richard Bland Finishes Seventh At NJCAA District 4 Preview

BREWTON, Ala. -- Richard Bland posted a 54-hole team score of 304-315-314--933 in men's golf to finish seventh among 10 teams at the NJCAA District 4 Preview September 26-27 at the Country Club of Brewton in Brewton, Alabama. Freshman Frankie Lin/Kaohsiung City, Taiwan led the Statesmen with his three-round score of 76-76-68--220 to finish fourth individually among 50 golfers at the par 72, 7,019-yard layout.

"The team as a whole represented the school exceptionally well, improving from last year's performance in districts by over 150 strokes," explained second-year head coach, Dr. Shawn Holt. "That said, we did not play up to our potential as we should be able to improve upon these scores by nearly 30 more shots. Frankie played a motivated (final) round of golf; he wanted to be in the top five badly and knew he had to go low in the final round -- it easily could have been a 66 or 65."

Lin posted the lowest score of the final round with his four-under par 68, also the second-lowest round of the event. He was followed by sophomore Sam Smith/Chesterfield (78-76-80--234, t-28th), along with freshmen Garrett Larson/Gainesville (72-79-89--240, t-34th), Sebastian Reetze/Bad Salzdetfurth, Germany (78-84-83--245, t-37th) and Justin Cranford/Lakeland, Fla. (86-85-83--254, t-44th). Larson's opening round of even-par 72 tied for the lowest first-round score.

Richard Bland's seventh-place effort placed the Statesmen ahead of fellow Region X Conference members Cape Fear (N.C.) Community College (8th, 936) and Wake Technical (N.C.) Community College (10th, 1006). No other Region X school participated in the tournament.

Richard Bland will compete again at the Region X Fall Championship hosted by Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College on November 5-6 at the River Falls Plantation golf course in Duncan, South Carolina.