Bulldogs force playoff on 18th hole, edged out by Seahawks in wacky NEC Championship finish

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University golf team trailed Wagner by five strokes heading onto the 18th hole of the third and final round of the Northeast Conference Championship, and it forced a playoff but could not complete the improbable comeback, finishing second in Daytona Beach, Fla.  
Bryant entered Sunday trailing by nine strokes, and though it made up four of those strokes, it still trailed by five heading into the final hole on the LPGA International-Jones Course. A triple-bogey, a bogey and a double-bogey allowed the Bulldogs to force a playoff on the final hole, as they shot a combined one-over on the 18 and the Seahawks shot a six-over to tie at 869, five-over par.

In the first-ever team playoff in the league tournament's history, the two team's sent out their five golfers to the 10th hole, but tied after the one-hole round. As a result of the tie, the team's moved to the ever-elusive 18, where it took two rounds of the playoff, but the Seahawks prevailed to capture their first ever NEC title.   

Four Bulldogs finished inside the top-15 of the 45-player field, led by juniors Ryan Tombs (Bedford, N.H.) and McKinley Slade (Saunderstown, R.I.), who carded scores of 213 (-3) and 216 (E), respectively.

Tombs jumped up three spots on the leader board on Sunday thanks to a third-round 69 to finish tied for first after 54 holes. He was in a tie with Fairleigh Dickinson's U Minn Woon, as the two golfers had an individual playoff of their own. But a Woon birdie on the third and final playoff round at Hole 10 sealed the win.

Slade dropped one spot, but still finished tied for fifth to give him a third-straight top-five finish to end the year. Senior Kyle Buschmann (East Haddam, Conn.) shot a 73, one-over par for a second-straight round to card a 219 (+3) and finish tied for ninth. Junior John Roberts (West Hartford, Conn.) jumped up four more spots after leaping over six golfers following day two, with a third-round score of 74 (+2) to finish tied for 15th (223, +7).

Sacred Heart's Hector Gutierrez and Wagner's Lucas Moreno finished in a tie for third place on the individual leader board with scores of 214, one stroke off the pace set by Woon and Tombs.

Robert Morris's Daniel Franco and Saint Francis U's Brandon Mihalo matched Slade with identical three-round totals of 216, even par to tie for fifth place.

The Bulldogs' impressive season comes to a dissappointing end, but it was a season that saw two overall team wins, two individual wins and 13 top-five individual finishes.