Highlanders Finish Fifth, Summers Places Second At Big South Championships

NINETY-SIX, S.C.-- Radford finished fifth at the 2005 Palmetto Utility Protection Service Big South Conference Men’s Golf Championships, shooting a 904 (304-293-307) at the par-72 Patriot at Grand Harbor. Radford senior Aaron Summers (Floyd, Va.) finished tied for second place, the highest finish ever for a RU men’s golfer in the Conference championship.

Coastal Carolina shot a final round 300 on Wednesday, the lowest round of the day, to win the Championship. Coastal recorded a three-round aggregate score of 857 – 7-under par and 35 shots ahead of second-place Charleston Southern – to win its second-straight title and eighth overall.

Summers shot a 215 (72-70-73) in the 54-hole event. Sophomore Josh Meador (Glen Allen, Va.) finished tied for 11th with a 223 (73-74-76). Freshman Hampton Ballard (Pearisburg, Va.) fired a 230 (78-74-78), good for a tie for 23rd place. Junior Chris Bagg (Christiansburg, Va.) tallied a 239 (81-78-80) to place 33rd. Sophomore Robert Nuon’s (Centreville, Va.) 244 (85-75-84) rounded out the RU scoring, putting him in 35th place.

Summers, a regular-season All-Conference selection, finished four strokes behind Zack Byrd of CCU. Byrd shot a 211 (70-67-74) to take medalist honors. Summers was tied with Coastal’s Dustin Johnson 215 (72-68-75).

Charleston Southern finished four shots ahead of third-place Liberty (896). It was the Flames’ best finish in the Big South Championship and best 54-hole Conference Championship score since 2000. Winthrop placed fourth at 900, four shots ahead of the fifth-place Highlanders. Birmingham-Southern moved ahead of High Point for sixth-place with 909, while High Point finished seventh at 913. Coastal Carolina’s margin of victory is the second-largest in Big South history, missing the record by one stroke (36 by Augusta in 1990). The Chanticleers also finished just six strokes ahead of the Conference tournament 54-hole record of 851.