May 4, 2002
IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Purdue men's golf team maintained its first-place standing after the first three rounds of the 2002 Big Ten Men's Golf Championships.
The Boilermakers fired a third-round 293 and have an 861 overall. Illinois is second place with 863. Minnesota and Indiana are both tied for fourth and three shots back. The Illini moved up from eighth place after the first two rounds thanks to a third-round 282.
"We didn't play very well today," said associate head coach Andrew Sapp. "We are fortunate to be able to still be ahead of Illinois by two strokes. They really played well today. We had our moments but didn't have great play across the board."
Junior Chris Mayson is tied for the individual lead after rounds of 68, 73 and 70. His three-day total of 211 is tied with Michigan State's Eric Jorgensen and Michigan's Andrew Matthews. Freshman Dustin Cone is tied for 16th after a three-round total of 218. He fired a third-round 77.
Senior All-America candidate Lee Williamson is tied for 20th with a 219. He carded a 77 on Saturday. Sophomore Shiv Kapur is tied for 23rd after a 74 on Saturday gave him a three-day total of 220. Junior Peter Karmis has a 221 and is tied for 27th. Karmis had a 72 in the third round, the second lowest score on the team.
"Chris is playing great right now and is really carrying us," said Sapp. "We need to get some others to step up and help us down the stretch. Peter played great on the back nine today and hopefully Lee and Dustin can bounce back from today."
The Boilermakers are looking for their first Big Ten championship since 1981 when they took home top honors in Minneapolis, Minn.. The last individual champion for Purdue was Steve Mayhew, who won the title in 1967.
"We are in a great position despite not playing well today," said Sapp. "Hopefully we can have low rounds tomorrow and bring home the trophy to West Lafayette."
The No. 23 Boilermakers are one of two Big Ten schools ranked in the top 25 of the Golfweek/Sagarin golf rankings. Minnesota is ranked 24th.
The event is being played at the par-72, 7,002-yard Finkbine Golf Course and hosted by the University of Iowa. The Boilermakers fired a first-round 279 and led the field by 10 strokes. In the second round, the Old Gold and Black carded a 289 and finished the first day with a 568.
The final round begins on Sunday at 8 a.m. CDT.
Place Individual 1st Rd. 2nd Rd. 3rd Rd. 4th Rd. Total T-1 Chris Mayson 68 73 70 211 -5T-16 Dustin Cone 69 72 77 218 +2T-20 Lee Williamson 69 73 77 219 +3T-23 Shiv Kapur 75 71 74 220 +4T-27 Peter Karmis 73 76 72 221 +5
Place Team 1st Rd. 2nd Rd. 3rd Rd. 4th Rd. Total1st Purdue 279 289 293 8612nd Illinois 294 287 282 8633rd Minnesota 294 278 295 867 Indiana 293 287 287 8675th Northwestern 289 283 296 8686th Michigan 294 284 294 8727th Michigan State 291 291 291 8738th Ohio State 295 285 295 8759th Iowa 291 286 302 87910th Penn State 302 295 287 88411th Wisconsin 296 300 305 902