HPU Men’s Golf Freshmen Making An Impact

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The freshmen class for the High Point University men’s golf team has made an immediate impact on the course, distinguishing themselves as the 19th-best freshmen class in the nation according to Golfstat.com’s Top 25 Freshmen Class Impact Rankings.

The High Point freshmen’s average score of 73.91 puts them in the top 25 out of all the Division I schools. McNeese State took the top spot with a stroke average of 73.58 and is the only school on the list to start four freshmen.

HPU’s ranking can contributed to David Long, Jack Sides and Phil Oweida who have played in every tournament for the Panthers this fall. Long is second on the team and 15th in the Big South Conference with a stroke average of 73 this season. He leads the team with two top-ten finishes, taking seventh at the Big South Preview and tying for ninth at the highly-competitive Bridgestone Collegiate. He took home Big South Freshman of the Week honors for his performance at the Bridgestone. Long is tied with Sides for the team-lead with three rounds under par after the fall season.

Sides is third on the team and 19th in the Big South with a stroke average of 73.45 for the fall. Sides carded a 67 in the final round of the Donald Ross Intercollegiate, the lowest round by any Panthers in the fall. He finished 17th at that tournament and was named the Big South Freshman of the Week. His best finish of the season was tied for eighth at the Myrtle Beach Intercollegiate with a 144 (73-71).

Oweida ranks fourth for the Panthers with a scoring average of 75.27. He had a season-low round of 71 at the Donald Ross Intercollegiate and finished that weekend with his best 54-hole score, 225. His best finish of the season is 17th at the Big South Preview.

Long, Sides and Oweida have represented HPU in every tournament this fall, along with sophomore McKay Tye. They combined to set a program record with a 54-hole score of 856 at the Donald Ross Intercollegiate.

High Point finished the fall with a team scoring average of 293.55. The Panthers begin the spring season on Feb. 17 at the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate hosted by Francis Marion in Hilton Head, S.C.