LEXINGTON, Ky. — After leading by 12 strokes with nine holes to go, Miles found itself holding a tenuous one-stroke advantage heading to the 18th in the final round of the 2024 Cricket SIAC Men's Golf Championship. Last year's SIAC Golfer of the Year,
Phillip Darst, and this year's top golfer, Kentucky State's Micah Stangebye, were set to battle not just for the conference team title, but were tied for the lead to determine who the individual medalist for the tournament.
With everything on the line, Darst answered the challenge.
His birdie on 18 finished a spectacular round that saw him shoot a 3-under 69. Stangebye made par to give Darst the individual title and push the Golden Bears towards the SIAC championship Wednesday afternoon at Kearney Hill Links. It was the program's second league title and first since 2016. The win also qualified Miles for the NCAA regionals which begin May 9.
The SIAC Championship consisted of two 18-hole rounds on Tuesday and a final 18-hole round on Wednesday. Miles was tied for the lead with Savannah State after round one and had opened a five-stroke lead on Kentucky State and seven-stroke advantage on Savannah State heading into the final round. While Miles had four of the top seven golfers vying for the individual title, two of them -
Jerris Baker and
Jesse Williams - were not included in the team scoring. Darst had shot an opening-round 80 and while he rebounded in the second round (2-over 74), he was still six shots off the pace. In fact, he trailed teammate
Samuel Stagno, who was four shots off the lead after shooting duplicate rounds of 76.
But Darst came out hot and so did his teammates. The junior from Mobile had four birdies on the front nine and was at 3-under at the turn.
Derrius Gillis (249, 21st) had three birds and was at even par through the first nine and
Malachi Greene (239, 12th) opened with a birdie and shot pars for the next eight holes to head into the back nine at 1-under. Gillis added another birdie at 10 and the Golden Bears were at 3-under on the round and held a 13-stroke advantage with eight holes left.
Kentucky State, though, did not concede and suddenly, Miles started giving back strokes.
Over the next four holes, KSU gained 10 strokes to get right back into the title mix. The lead was down to one as the team hit the tee box on 18. But Miles got birdies from Darst, Stagno and Gillis and a par from Greene while the Thorobreds were only able to secure two birdies as Miles celebrated the team title as well as Darst's individual medalist honors - the first in school history at the SIAC Championship - finishing at 7-over 223.
Stagno (227, +11) was also named to the All-Tournament team after finishing tied for fifth. Baker (233, 8th) and Williams (234, 9th) also finished in the top-10.
Marquis Taylor(241) finished tied for 15th.