Belle Vernon, PA. – On Sunday, the Wheeling University Men’s Golf team kicked off the 2022 season at the Vulcan Invitational. While they didn’t get all 36 holes in on the day, the Cardinals sit 18th in the field, shooting a 314 in round one and currently sitting at +18 in the second round of the day. The final holes of round two have been moved to Monday followed by the start of round three to finish our the event.
After the first day of action, two returners are leading the way for the Cardinals with junior Austin Panhorst and Nick Zaller leading the way sitting in 66th and 80th place respectively. In round one, both golfers shot career best marks with Panhorst sitting at 76 and Zaller shooting a 78. Panhorst began his day on hole one and rattled off five straight pars to start the round. After a Bogey, he made up for it on hole 16 with a birdie that brought him back to even. By the end of the back nine, Panhorst was at +1 for the round and looked to continue that success on the front nine. He added one more birdie on the day on the ninth hole and shot a respectable +4 on the front nine to finish the round. As he went into round two, Panhorst currently sits at even through 15 holes, and has added four more birdies in round two. He has totaled six birdies through his 33 holes so far.
Zaller also got the start on hole #10 but, unlike Panhorst, did not have as much success on the back nine. He shot a +5 on the back nine and needed a strong rebound on the front nine to battle back. He would do just that, hitting par on the first four holes and added a birdie on hole eight. He finished +2 on the front nine and finished with a career-best 78 round score. He was through 14 of the 18 holes in round two and learned from his mistakes in round one, shooting even par. He has added two birdies on the back nine and another birdie on the front nine to go along with three Bogeys. Zaller is looking to beat his round one score and stay even as he enters the final four holes, which will begin on Monday morning.
Rounding out the day one scores for the Cardinals were Blake Ring-Fish, Ethan Short, and Alex Parker. Ring-Fish was the only other Wheeling golfer to finish under the 80-stroke mark, shooting a 79 on the day. He would shoot one Birdie on the day, on hole 18, and had eight pars in the first round. With two more holes to play in round two, Ring-Fish is currently sitting at +9 and has one more birdie to add to his day. Ethan Short, who is competing in his first collegiate Invitational, shot an 81 in his opening round and is at +12 so far in round two through 14 holes. Alex Parker rounds out the group, shooting an 86 in round one, followed by a +9 through 14 holes in round two. The Cardinals will look to continue to improve on day two as they grow both as a team and as individuals.
Day two of the Vulcan Invitational is set to kick off on Monday at 8 am. Round two will resume to start the day, followed by the third round as the tournament wraps up.