The Mason Rudolph Championship tournament was held at Vanderbilt’s Legends South Course this past weekend and the Georgia Southern University’s men’s golf team finished in fifth place.

To be expected, the field for this tournament was very difficult. It included No. 1-ranked University of Alabama, No. 17-ranked Florida State University and No. 19-ranked Vanderbilt University by Golf World/Nike Coaches Poll as well as three other top-50 teams. Alabama finished first in the tournament with an 847 followed by Vanderbilt, Mercer University and University of Louisville.

“Basically we played a solid field. We finished fifth, played pretty well, we didn’t have our best stuff this week, but we played solid and came out with a top five finish, which is always something you’re looking to do,” Head Coach Larry Mays said. “If you play in a good field and finish in the top five, it’s kind of like preparing for moving on at regionals later on in the year.”

After round one, the Eagles were in the sixth place position with junior Charlie Martin leading the team and tying for second with a score of 62. Martin produced the same score in round two and with the efforts of the whole team, the Eagles moved into fifth place.

“Charlie played great. He played really good the first two days and played solid [Sunday] with some really tough hole locations out there the last two days especially,” Mays said. “Between the weather conditions and the hole location it was a tough tournament.”

In the final round of the tournament, the Eagles maintained their fifth place position. Martin also maintained his role as the lead Eagle in the tournament and posted a score of 73 on the day to end in fourth place overall.

“Our next tournament starts our post season. It will be our last SoCon championship with the athletic department moving to the Sun Belt conference next year. This is the last one we’ll have a chance to win so thats something we’ll be looking forward to,” Mays said.

The SoCon Championships will begin on April 20 in Pinehurst, N.C.