The No. 7-ranked Emory golf team finished seventh in the Tournament Town Preview, a three-round, 54-hole tournament, at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, NC, Sept. 24 to 25.

The Eagles finished with a final team score of 889 (292-219-306), placing seventh in a field of 18 teams. No. 1-ranked University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) earned first place with total score of 875. Following UT Tyler, No. 3-ranked Huntingdon College (Ala.) and No. 9-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University tied for second at 878. It was a rather disappointing finish for Emory after last week’s first-place finish at the Rhodes College Fall Classic.

“We just did not play well,” Head Coach John Sjoberg said of the results. “We’ll learn and rebound from it.”

Junior Connor Yakubov led Emory with a score of 221, a mark that left him five over par and 15th out of 90 players. Freshman Eric Yiu finished next for the Eagles, tying for 23rd with a score of 223 (+7). Senior Keenan Hickton followed in 37th with a score of 226. Junior Stefano Butti and sophomore Matt Organisak completed the tournament with scores of 227 and 230, placing them No. 42 and No. 53, respectively.

Yakubov noted the course’s difficulty level in comparison to last weekend’s tournament in Mississippi.

“The course was lot harder,” Yakubov said. “The course was more firm. Conditions were also tougher. It was windier [today]. However, that was not to blame for our performance.”

The Eagles will look to right the ship at the Oglethorpe Fall Invitational at Royal Lakes Golf and Country Club in Flowery Branch, Ga., Oct. 7 to 8.

Sjoberg anticipates another challenging course at Royal Lakes but has a gameplan for his team to bounce back from this week’s disappointing performance.

“[They] have to drive [the ball] well because it’s a fairly tight golf course,” Sjoberg said. “[However], if the conditions are good, we [have] to make a lot of birdies [to contend].”

The team will need to be back at its best as they battle against many of the same teams in two weeks at Royal Lakes.

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