DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Lindsey Wilson men's golf team wrapped up the 2015 season with a 16th place finish at the 64th annual NAIA Men's Golf National Championship on Friday at LPGA International.
The Blue Raiders conclude the four-day tournament with a 46-over par 1,198 (297-298-297-306) after an 18-over par 306 on the fourth and final day.
Lindsey Wilson finished just one stroke behind 15th place The Master's (Calif.) and three strokes behind 14th place Cardinal Stritch (Wisc.).
The 16th-place finish is just one spot shy of the program's best-ever finish at the national championship, a 15th-place performance coming in 2007.
Oliver Cowl provided the best individual finish at the championships finishing at 9-over par in a tie for 51st place (297;71-73-77-76). Cowl struggled right out of the gate in the final round with a double bogey on the par-4 10th. A birdie on the 11th brought him back to 1-over but five bogeys and just two more birdie left him at 4-over par for the day.
Federico Navarro provided the best round on the final day for the Blue Raiders, carding a 2-over par 74 to match his lowest round of the tournament (300; 75-74-77-74). Navarro started great quickly moving to 3-under par thanks to three birdies and six pars on the back nine. But the front nine got the best of him as he bogeyed the par-5 second and then recorded five-straight bogeys on holes 4-8 before completing his round with a birdie on No. 9 to finish at 2-over. He would finish tied for 60th at 12-over par for the championship.
Ryan Nowe carded a 4-over par 76 in the final round to finish with a four-day total 309 (77-83-73-86) tied for 78th place. After playing the back nine at 1-over, Nowe was unable to get to even on the front nine as he recorded three bogeys to drop to 4-over. His lone birdie in the round came on the par-4 18th.
Chris Butler also finished tied for 78th place with a 309 (74-76-79-80). After starting with seven-straight pars to open his round, Butler struggled over the next eight holes dropping seven total strokes thanks to four bogeys combined with a pair of double bogeys along with a par and a birdie. He would finish his round with a bogey on the par-4 ninth.
After improving by five strokes each previous day of the tournament, Nathan Hincks was unable to keep the trend going as he finished the final round with a 18-over par 90 to move to 318 (83-75-70-90) for the tournament in a tie for 89th place.
He opened with three-straight pars on the day but struggled with the latter half of the back nine, falling to 6-over. Hincks was unable to turn things around of the front as he dropped 10 strokes alone on holes two, seven and eight to fall to 18-over for the day.
Coastal Georgia captured their second-straight national title with a 7-under par performance for the tournament, defeating second place William Woods (Mo.) by 11 strokes.
Dalton State's (Ga.) Sean Elliott captured the individual national championship with a 16-under par performance (272; 68-69-65-70), breaking a 60-year-old championship tournament record.
