HAWORTH, N.J. – A hole-in-one on the tournament's final hole by freshman Kristian O'Grady (Thiells, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) highlighted the Felician University men's golf team's trip to The Battle at the Beech on Monday and Tuesday. The 36-hole event was hosted by Dominican (N.Y.) College at White Beeches Country Club. Felician was playing its first event of the spring portion of its 2021-22 season.
O'Grady aced the 202-yard, par-3 18th hole on Tuesday to complete Day 2 of the event with an eight-over par score of 80. He recorded the second hole-in-one in the 17-year history of the Felician program. Prince Suklabbsawan had the other on Apr. 12, 2019, in Syracuse, N.Y.
O'Grady finished second among Felician competitors and tied for 46th overall out of 66 entrants with his tournament score of 89-80--169. Felician junior Gonzalo Maldonado Felices (Almeria, Spain/Stella Maris) fired rounds of 80 and 78 on the 6,839-yard par-72 layout. Though Maldonado Felices improved by two strokes on Tuesday, he fell three spots in the standings to finish in a tie for 11th place.
Felician sat in 12th place after Monday's round after posting a team score of 359. With their 336 on Tuesday, the Golden Falcons moved past Thomas Jefferson University and into 11th place in the final standings in the 12-team tournament, totaling 695 strokes. Felician finished 15 shots ahead of Jefferson and 32 behind 10th-place University of the Sciences.
Midyear transfer James Surovcik (Philadelphia, Pa./New Mexico Military Academy) made his Felician debut and tied for 61st place with rounds of 95 and 89. Rounding out the Golden Falcon lineup were freshman Brandon Mudrick (Hamburg, N.J./Wallkill Valley) (95-100—195, 64th), and sophomore Dylan Molloy (Spotswood, N.J./Spotswood) (108-89—197, 65th).
Post University earned the tournament title. Its 36-hole total of 307-313—620 (+25) was 14 shots better than three teams that tied for second place. American International College's Li Su and Post's Bill Koch shared medalist honors, each producing a seven-over-par total of 73-78—151.
Felician plays in another Dominican-hosted event next week, the Charger Challenge on Mar. 28-29 in Emerson, N.J.
