Chaplet, Bearkats take men's golf titles

Monday, April 26

McKinney

Southland Conference Tournament

Photo by: Dustin LeNorman

Chaplet, Bearkats take men's golf titles

4/28/2021 5:03:00 PM | Men's Golf

McKINNEY – For the third straight season, the Sam Houston men's golfers are the champions of the Southland Conference. The Bearkats held off a charge from Lamar and finished off a 10-shot victory for the title.

The Bearkats also claimed the top individual title after a round of 70, Paul Chaplet won by one shot over Nikolai Schaffrath from Lamar. Chaplet entered the day in third place and two shots out of the lead.

He started off his day with a birdie on No.1 and made the turn at 3-indeer par. A birdie on No. 11 got him to 4-under on the day. His title hopes were nearly derailed after a double bogey on No. 13, but came back with a birdie three holes later. He was in the clubhouse with the lead and had to wait for Schaffrath, who was playing in the final group, to finish before he knew if he'd won the title outright.

For the team, the Kats entered the day with an 8-shot lead, but quickly saw it shrink to just two after just six holes of play. Almost just as fast, the lead was back to 10 and that is where it finished after shooting 292 for the day.

Three individuals finished in the top 5 for the Kats with William Holcomb taking third place and Ting-Wei Hsieh finishing fifth.

Holcomb played steady golf all day, carding a 73 with 17 pars on the round. Hsieh was up and down, shooting a 72 on the day with five birdie and five bogeys. Luis Carrera shot a 75 on Wednesday and finished in 14^th place while Jack Randle was 23^rd after a round of 79.

The win earns the Bearkats a bid to the NCAA Regionals for the third straight season and the fifth time in program history.

The win by the Bearkats and the individual title by Chaplet, coupled with the win last week for the women and individual titles for Jennifer Herbst and Hanna Alberto give the Bearkats a sweep of the four Southland golf championships. They are the only school in the league that has accomplished that feat. They also did it in 2019.