SILVIS, IL: Texas Wesleyan University's
David Ravetto entered the final round at the 65th Annual NAIA Men's Golf National Championship at TPC Deere Run with a share of the lead. On Friday, the freshman from Paris was on fire as he scorched the field with a -3 (68) to run away with the O.D. Bounds National Medalist Award. Ravetto's performance also lifted the Rams to a 4th place finish in the program's 55th tournament appearance.
Ravetto Wins!
Ravetto becomes the 10th Ram to earn medalist honors at the National Championship (an NAIA record), and the first to do so since Chris Gaines in 1998. Following the tournament, he also received the NAIA Arnold Palmer National Individual Champion Award and the NAIA Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award.
He entered the day at even par (213) tied atop the field of 156 individuals with Victoria's Lawren Rowe and Oklahoma City's Matthew Cheung.
The day started right with when he birdied his opening hole, but bogey's on three and four dropped him to +1. He quickly recovered with two more birdies on six and eight and held the outright lead at -1 as he made the turn.
Meanwhile, Rowe played the front nine at +2 and Cheung fell off to +4 through nine holes. OCU's Anthony Marchesani entered the fray by playing the front nine at -1 to get to +3 for the tournament.
The lead swelled on the back nine as Ravetto needed only four strokes to complete the par 5 10th hole. Another bird on 15 put him firmly in command at -3. Bogey's on 16 and 18 may have spelled trouble for the talented freshman, but in between he carded an Eagle on the Par-5 17th that proved to be the exclamation point on his title run.
Cheung made a valiant charge on the back nine, throwing in four birdies to get back to even par and finish second. Rowe was third at +3, and Marchesani finished tied for 4th at +5.
Rams Go Low to Finish 4th!
Ravetto's 68 highlighted a round of 2-under par (282) that proved to be the low round of the tournament as all five Rams turned in their low mark of the tournament.. The performance vaulted Texas Wesleyan from a tie for 7th all the way to a 4th place finish.
Leo Mathard shot -1 (70) and finished tied for 17th at 295.
Steven Anderson turned in a round of even par 71 and
Nick Krsnak counted a round of 73.
Matthew Killam also carded a round of 74 on Friday.
The team title went to Oklahoma City University at 1164 for the tournament. The Stars were nearly as impressive as the Rams on Friday with a round of 286 to claim the program's 10th national title (an NAIA record). British Columbia (1172), William Woods (1173), Texas Wesleyan (1176), and Johnson & Wales (1182) rounded out the top-5.
The three Sooner Athletic Conference teams in the competition placed 1st (OCU), 4th (TWU), and 6th (Wayland Baptist.
Fabulous Freshmen from France
Ravetto came to Texas Wesleyan at the semester break, joining another outstanding freshman from France in
Leo Mathard. In the spring he played seven tournaments, he was the Rams leading scorer in each of their last six times tournaments while leading the team to six top-5 finishes and three wins. Individually this was his first collegiate win although he had finished as the runner up twice and has never finished worse than six (T6 in his first collegiate tournament). For the season he notched a scoring average of 71.7 which marks a new school record.
Mathard (Vieux-Boucau, France) also had an incredible freshman year. He was the Rams' top finisher in each of his first five tournaments, finishing no worse than third and claiming a pair of individual victories in that span. His season scoring average of 72.5667 ranks third on the school's single season list. For the year he posted five top-5, and eight top-10 finishes.
Both Ravetto and Mathard were named Golf Coaches Associating of America PING NAIA 1st-team All-Americans on Friday as well.
Youth Movement
Ravetto and Mathard were not alone in an outstanding freshman class. The roster featured nine freshmen including
Futa Yamagishi who was the Rams' alternate at the National Championship. In addition,
Nicholas Narcisse,
Brenden Newland,
Conner Parish, and Ujaval Sadana round out a terrific recruiting class for the Texas Wesleyan coaching staff.
Texas Wesleyan Scores
Fin. Players Scores
1 David Ravetto 72 70 71 68 281
T17 Leo Mathard 76 77 72 70 295
T49 Steven Anderson 75 79 77 71 302
T55 Nick Krsnak 78 79 73 73 303
T78 Matthew Killam 75 77 84 74 310
4 Texas Wesleyan 298 303 293 282 1176
Ramblings
- The Rams were making their 13th consecutive appearance in the NAIA National Championship and 55th appearance overall.
- Texas Wesleyan has finished in the top-10 at the NAIA National Championship 52 times and has never failed to make the cut.
- The Rams now own a streak of nine consecutive top-10 finishes at the NAIA National Championship including runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2009.
- This was the program's 36th top-5 finish and the 3rd time they have finished fourth at the NAIA National Championship.
- Ravetto's card of 281 is the sixth best through 72-holes in the history of the program, and the best since Danny Mijovic and Dow Brian tied for the National Title in 1983.
