Conroy, Mocs Earn Win at N.C. State
What. A. Day. The Chattanooga Mocs followed junior Paul Conroy’s lead into the first win of the season at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate. It’s Conroy’s first collegiate win and first of first-year Coach Blaine Woodruff’s tenure.
What a final round for Conroy. His 10-under 62 matches the school record set by Fredrik Qvicker at the 2008 Aldila Scenic City Invite. It included two eagles, one a hole-in-one, and six birdies.
He shot 29 (-7) over the opening 18. The last 29 over nine holes was Oliver Simonsen ’21 coming in to complete a school-record 21 under performance winning the 2018 Memphis Intercollegiate finishing with 63 (-9) at Colonial Country Club. Conroy ended up with a 10-under 206.
It earned the affable junior from Ireland a 2-stroke victory over Maximillian Scteinlechner of N.C. State and Nicky Lyerly from UNC Greensboro.
“It feels great to finally get over the line,” Conroy smiled. “I’ve been close a lot of times (since coming to Chattanooga). I battled at the finish. I was 2 over on the closing holes yesterday and got two birdies today which turned out to be the difference.
“I hit every shot where I wanted it to go today. It was a pretty enjoyable round with everything going the right way.”
He was joined in the top 10 by teammates Samuel Espinosa and John Houk. Espinosa fired a 6-under total of 210 to tie for fourth. He completed the event with a sterling 67. Houk shot 70 to tie for sixth, one behind Espinosa at 5 under. The duo turned in a combine six par or better cards over the two days.
Carson Johnson completed the counting cards with 73. That put the team tally at 16 under, 272, to vault from a tie for fourth into a 9-shot blitz over Lipscomb and the host N.C. State. Johnson ended up with 222, two ahead of Braedon Wear’s 224.
“I couldn’t be happier for our guys,” Woodruff shared. “That was one heck of a round they played today. This group worked extremely hard at home competing and in practice to earn this win. Paul’s round was huge for us and was the tournament record. I’m super pumped for him to get his first collegiate win.”
The Mocs are right back on the tee Friday at the Furman Intercollegiate. The 3-day, 54-hole event is played at Furman Golf Club in Greenville, S.C.
