On a golf course that looks plopped down between the contours of the land it’s placed on and the sparkling blue water surrounding it, senior Paul Chang drew back an iron Wednesday and unleashed a shot that also plopped down. Into the hole.
Chang recorded a hole-in-one Wednesday on the 168-yard, par-3 16th hole at Grand Reserve Golf Club, in the third and final round of the Puerto Rico Classic. The shot helped him to a tie for sixth in the 89-player field, a team-leading result for a squad whose stars failed to keep pace with an array of blistering opponents.
Virginia, the No. 7-ranked team in the country, finished seventh out of 15 in its season-opening event. The field it faced was loaded, bursting with highly ranked talent in No. 1 Ole Miss and No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 6 Louisiana State and No. 18 Georgia.
The team who won it all, though, had no high ranking. Purdue galloped in to capture the prestigious tournament, taking the lead on the second day and running away to finish 39-under par. Ole Miss followed at 33-under and South Carolina at 32-under, on down to Virginia in seventh at 22-under.
Chang’s ace, the first by a Cavalier since Ashton Poole’s in the 2019 ACC Championships, highlighted the event. It boosted him to a 3-under 69 in his closing round, to finish the tournament at 10-under, five strokes back of Purdue’s Sam Easterbrook, the champion at 15-under.
Chang blistered from Monday’s beginning. He shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 67, which put him in fifth place. He followed it up with a 1-under 70, before the closing round. It marked his third top-10 finish in the last two years.
The Cavaliers, the runner-up at this event last year, walked away with less to boast about. They filtered into the middle of the pack from the beginning, sitting in fifth after the first round before backsliding to seventh in the second, where they stayed.
Juniors Ben James and Bryan Lee followed Chang. They played solid golf across the three days, finishing T-16 and T-27 at 6-under and 4-under. Sophomore Josh Duangmanee recovered from two over-par opening rounds to shoot a closing 4-under 68 and finish 1-under for the week, a campaign that included two eagles. Senior Deven Patel struggled to a 6-over week, and freshman Maxi Puregger, playing as an individual, finished at 4-over.
Chang, Lee and James combined for 43 birdies over the three days. That is a promising snapshot of potential. But Virginia, starting on Feb. 22-23 at the Next Man Up Individual in Raleigh, N.C., will need to do more to maximize that possibility.
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