Ekert Rallies Spiders at A-10 Championship

27 Apr 2024

RIchmond Spiders Athletic

ORLANDO, Fla. — Instead of letting a bad break derail him at the A-10 Men's Golf Championship Friday, Spiders junior Cole Ekert used it to reverse the arc of his round. Ekert played his final 10 holes in 5-under par to erase his triple-bogey on the eighth hole of Cypress Course at Evermore Resort, finishing his round at 1-under par (71) and pulling the Spiders back to the middle of the leaderboard.

Championship - Figure 1 — Photo RIchmond Spiders Athletic

Ekert's tee shot on the par-3 eighth hole found the left greenside bunker. "It was really the only swing I wanted back all day," said Ekert. "The tee shot wasn't great." His lie in the bunker was worse. With the ball plugged in the sand on a downslope, Ekert proceeded to make a 6.

"Honestly, I was in a pretty good headspace on [the 9th hole]. You've got to accept that you made a triple. I knew if I could make one birdie the back 9 was pretty gettable." Ekert birdied 9, then made another on 10. "I was 2-over par at that point but I felt like I was 2-under, because I was really proud of myself for fighting after a triple. I was just trying to kind of reset and attack. I checked the scores once and they weren't crazy good. So I was like 'Nobody's going nuts. Let me just chip my way back.'" Ekert did more than chip his way back. He added birdies on 13, 14, and 17 to finish in red figures at 1-under par and is tied for seventh in the field with 36 holes remaining. As a team, Richmond is in seventh place at 11-over par (299), 22 shots behind Round 1 leaders VCU but just 11 behind Davidson and Dayton, who are tied for second at even par (288). Freshman Quin Polin is tied for 27th at 3-over par (75), one shot in front of fellow freshman Jack LaPiana, who is tied for 32nd. LaPiana made 15 pars Friday, tied for the most of any golfer in the field. Graduate student Lou Baker and sophomore Drew Carlin are tied for 40th at 5-over par (77). The Spiders will open play in Round 2 Saturday at 8:15 AM on the 9th tee. Richmond will be paired with La Salle and Rhode Island.