Home-course advantage can make all the difference, WVU Golf proved Monday and Tuesday.
West Virginia hosted its annual Mountaineer Invitational early this week at the Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, W.Va. WVU welcomed 15 other teams for the event, and none stood a chance.
The Mountaineers finished 18-under-par, 28 strokes lower than second-place Marshall. Sophomore Carson Kammann placed first among all individuals, shooting 10-under par, and was followed one stroke behind by senior Jackson Davenport.
Pete Dye Golf Club is one of five courses home to WVU Golf, though it is the only course the team has hosted an event at in the past five seasons. The course, ranked No. 64 in America by Golf Digest and seventh among Dye’s historic course designs, encapsulates the state’s spirit and finds itself intertwined with the nature of Appalachia.
As such, WVU and Marshall’s success in Bridgeport makes sense. West Virginia’s dominance over the team pool outmatches the typical home-course impact, though.
WVU has shot under par four times this season, including two scores 20 or more strokes under, and tied for fourth, tied for seventh, and placed eighth in the others, which is a far cry from the 28-stroke margin of victory at Pete Dye.
The 18-under-par score is a new tournament record, beating the previous mark of nine-under-par from 2022’s NC State team. Representing the Mountaineers in the stunning performance were seniors Trent Tipton and Will Stakel and juniors Max Green and Pierce Grieve alongside Davenport.
The Mountaineer lineup took five of the top 25 individual placements. Davenport performed best, placing second overall with a nine-under-par, 71-69-67=207 score. He was followed two strokes behind by Green, whose round splits were 66-72-71=209 and earned him fourth place.
Grieve never shot over par to tie for sixth with a 72-70-71=213 showing. Tipton placed 21st (78-74-68=220) and contributed a strong four-under-par score in round three, and Stakel tied for 25th with a score of 76-75-70=221.
West Virginia’s lineup obviously shined, resulting in the huge victory, but perhaps the real star of the week was one of WVU’s individual golfers.
Carson Kammann, a sophomore without any under-par invitational performances this season, was left out of the lineup in Bridgeport, and, representing himself, he proved that was a mistake.
Kammann placed first overall with a final score of 71-68-67=206. He is the second Mountaineer to place first at a tournament this season, with the other being Green, who won the Red Bandanna Invitational with a three-under-par finish in September.
West Virginia’s five other individual competitors this week played well, too. Junior Todd Duncan tied with Grieve in sixth, posting three 71-stroke rounds in a row. Sophomore Kaleb Wilson managed a top-10 finish as well after a spectacular six-under-par third round brought him to a 75-76-66=217 (+1) final score.
Harrison Thompson finished one stroke behind Wilson to tie for 12th, recording rounds of 74-73-71=218 (+2). Rounding out WVU’s individual competitors were senior Oli MĂ©nard, who tied for 37th with a score of 72-76-76=224 (+8), and Westy McCabe in 58th, who improved drastically each round for an 84-78-68=230 (+14) finish.
The dominant showing at home gives WVU plenty of momentum as the season comes to a close. WVU Golf’s next stop will be the Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship in Trinity, Texas, starting Monday, April 22 at 8 a.m. The event will end the following Wednesday.
Photo from WVU Men’s Golf
