No. 15 Men’s golf closes NAIA Tournament with fifth-place finish
DALTON, Ga. – The No. 15-ranked UHV men's golf team set out to turn some heads this week at the NAIA Men's Golf Championships at Dalton Golf and Country Club.
A strong final day in which all five golfers shot rounds in the 70s saw the Jaguars do that by finishing fifth with a final-round score of 297 – the team's lowest round of the tournament. The fifth-place finish is the second-best finish in UHV athletics history, second only to men's golf's fourth-place finish at the 2022 NAIA Tournament.
UHV (305-303-300-297—1205) finished four shots behind Columbia College (301-302-289-309—1202) and five shots better than 2023 national champion British Columbia (299-304-298-309—1210).
"The guys, from top to bottom, they're fighters and they never give up," said head coach Garrett Adair. "That's been our motto this week since we got here for the practice round. Even after the first day, we knew it was going to take patience and a bunch of grinding around the course.
"Obviously, the goal is always to win. But to start the first round 13th and battle all the way up to seventh, sixth and finish fifth, it just says a lot about our guys' character and their heart to fight."
Junior Joshua Van Der Wath secured All-Tournament honors and an automatic bid to the 2025 NAIA Tournament, should UHV not qualify as a team, by finishing T-8 after rounds of 71-75-73-75—294 at the Par 72 course.
The Johannesburg, South African, native had plenty of motivation to excel at the National Tournament after serving as an alternate on the 2023 team which missed the cut.
"I really wanted to play (last year)," Van Der Wath said. "So it was very motivating to come out and make sure either the team or I made the cut. That was one of my big motivators for this week, just giving myself the best opportunity. It's nice to see some of the hard work is paying off."
Paul Chopin had the honors of the team-low round in the final round, firing a one-under 71 to move up 23 spots to T-39 (79-81-74-71—305), joining teammate Enzo Dakiche (77-74-73-75—299, T-20) in the Top 30 of the field of over 150 golfers.
The Poitiers, France, native wanted to build off a strong third round which saw him shoot a 74. He carded five birdies, including on the Par 3 14th hole which was the third toughest hole of the tournament, and only had one hole worse than bogey on Friday.
"Yesterday, I hit a lot of greens and came back to what I'm used to doing," Chopin said. "I just tried to keep it simple and play simple to try my best to shoot low."
Freshman Nathan Biais bounced back from an 80 in the third round to post a 77 in the final round and finish T-50 (78-73-80-77—305).
Freshman Hayden Hardwick (84-83-85-76—328, 79th) carded his best round of the tournament with a 76, a nine-shot improvement from his third round.
Three birdies on the front nine helped the Portland, Texas, native make the turn at two-under. He went on to post a scorecard with nothing worse than a bogey on a course which played 5.61 strokes over par through the four rounds.
"That says a lot about his character," Adair said. "The first three days, he didn't play the way he wanted to, but he knew today he could go out and start fast. He was two-under through nine holes. Not only does he do that, but it built his confidence up and built the team confidence up knowing our No. 5 is battling to put up a score."