Ball State University Athletics
Denger's 63 & Skillman's 64 Lead BSU Men's Golf To Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational Title
September 29, 2005 | Men's Golf
2005 Earl Yestingsmeier Final Results / 2005 Earl Yestingsmeier Final Summary
The Ball State men's golf team erased a five-stroke deficit with six holes to play and rallied to win the 2005 Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational by five strokes over Austin Peay.
The comeback was highlighted by a Ball State school, Delaware Country Club and Earl Yestingsmeier tournament record round of 63 by junior Wayne Denger. Denger birdied his 18th hole of the day for the low round and helped set up Ball State's team finish.
Just minutes before and within sight of Denger, junior Andy Skillman finished his round with a six-under score of 64.
Skillman held the same three records until Denger birdied on the hole ahead to finish his round of 63.
"Unbelievable," says Fleck, when asked to describe the performance from Skillman and Denger. "One word sums it up. I haven't seen anything like it in my eight years of coaching. To have Andy and Wayne do what they did today, and in many ways carry and rally our team, it's hard to describe. There's no question they have the ability, but to witness it today was certainly exciting -- and historic."
The Cardinals finished 16-under par and shattered the BSU school record for a 54-hole tournament with an 824. The record included a new school mark for 18 holes with Tuesday's 271. Ball State bettered the school record in each of the three rounds this week (278, 275, 271).
"I am very, very proud of this team," said BSU head coach Mike Fleck, who earned the eighth tournament victory of his coaching career. "I think it means even more to have this team come into today's round knowing they had to play well and they did. We answered every challenge."
Tuesday's final-round performance comes on the heels of what was a record-setting day on Monday. Senior Patrick Wilkes-Krier fired a career-low round of 65 Monday afternoon to catapult the Ball State men's golf team into a first-place tie entering the final round.
Wilkes-Krier's 65 also matched a then-Ball State school record for 18 holes set by Jim Schrecongost (1967), Darrett Brinker (1992), Soon Ko (1994) and Jamie Broce (1999). In addition, the 65 was an Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational record for individual low 18-hole score until Skillman's 64 and eventually Denger's 63 passed it Tuesday.
"I was hitting the ball well and making the putts to keep it going," Denger said. "I put it all together today. The most important thing is that I was not worrying about my individual score, but trying to help our team win. That was the motivation -- and it helped to have Andy in the group behind to push me."
"It was a lot of fun" Skillman added. "Wayne and I pretty much knew what was happening the whole day. I was able to get off to a good start and when I holed in for eagle on No. 5, you could tell it was going to be a special day. We needed this today as a team, because we all knew we could do it."
To view complete scorecards for the Cardinals: http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/leaderboards/team/static/tdetail3_643.html
| -16 | F | 278 | 275 | 271 | 824 | |||
| -3 | F | 68 | 75 | 64 | 207 | |||
| E | F | 78 | 69 | 63 | 210 | |||
| E | F | 70 | 70 | 70 | 210 | |||
| +1 | F | 72 | 65 | 74 | 211 | |||
| +7 | F | 68 | 71 | 78 | 217 |
