SANDESTIN, Fla. – Guilford College junior Noah Ratner (Asheville, N.C./Asheville) shot two-under-par 69 Monday to extend his lead through two rounds of the Golfweek Division 3 Fall Invitational at the Raven Golf Club at Sandestin.
Despite windy conditions, the Quakers shot the day’s low score (296) for the second straight day. Guilford (586) holds a nine-stroke edge over defending national runner up Illinois Wesleyan College (298-297-595) and the University of Texas at Tyler (291-304-595), which entered the tournament ranked first in the latest Golfstat.com Division III Ratings. Oglethorpe University (303-305-608) and Rhodes College (296-313-609) round out the top five in the 18-team field, which includes 12 teams ranked in Golfstat.com’s top 25.
Ratner, who shot a career-low 66 in Sunday’s first round, overcame an early bogey on the third hole and played the last 15 holes three-under par. He and Illinois Wesleyan’s Stefan Johnson shared the day’s low score. Ratner added two strokes to his first-round lead over LaGrange College’s Hudson Keener, who retained second place with an even-par 71, but fell four strokes behind Ratner. Johnson climbed from 12th into third place.
Guilford senior Dusty Roberts (Reidsville, N.C./Rockingham County) bounced back from an opening-round 83 to shoot 74 Monday and climb 31 spots into 47th place. Quakers’ rookie Mitch Robinette (Charlotte, N.C./Grace Academy) had the Quakers’ third-lowest score (76), one better than classmate Drew Thompson (77), who sits 14th in the 90-man field at 150. Guilford junior J.T. Thomas (Raleigh, N.C./Broughton) shares 18th place (74-78-152).
Tuesday’s third and final round begins at 7:40 a.m. on the par-71, 6,643-yard, Robert Trent Jones Jr. layout in northwest Florida.