AUBURN, Ala. | Jordan Plunkett and Will Skipp each finished the tournament in the top 30 at the Tiger Invitational hosted by Jason Dufner at the Grand National Lake Course this week.

Each finished at 2-over (218) for the tournament with Plunkett carding a first round 70 to get his tournament started. He wrapped the tournament up with a final round 72, while Skipp shot an opening round 71 and finished the tournament with a final round 72. Carson Bacha of Auburn pulled away with low medalist honors finishing the tournament at 11-under (205), finishing ahead of Max Sturdza of Florida Atlantic by two strokes.

Jack Hearn finished at 4-over (220) to finish tied for 38th overall in the tournament.

South Alabama finished tied for 13th as a team with a 15-over (879) to tie with North Alabama. The Jags shot an opening round 286 and ended the tournament with a final round 293. Auburn claimed the top spot with a 41-under (823), while Troy finished second at 10-under (854).

Tournament Information
Event (host): Tiger Invitational hosted by Jason Dufner (Auburn)
Dates: March 5 – March 7 (Sunday-Tuesday)
Course: Grand National Lake Course (Opelika, Ala.)

Team Scores
(1) Auburn 276-270-277-823 (-41), (2) Troy 279-288-287-854 (-10), (3) Chattanooga 288-288-279-855 (-9), (4) Southern Miss 273-297-290-860 (-4), (5) Florida Atlantic 289-291-282-862 (-2), (6) Auburn 285-289-291-865 (+1), (7) Louisiana Tech 280-300-288-868 (+4), (t-8) UNCW 293-298-280-871 (+7), (t-8) Toledo 289-296-286-871 (+7), (10) Stetson 285-300-288-873 (+9), (11) East Carolina 297-286-293-876 (+12), (12) Richmond 282-296-300-878 (+14), (t-13) South Alabama 286-300-293-879 (+15), (t-13) North Alabama 293-299-287-879 (+15), (15) Georgia State 292-297-293-882 (+18), (16) Wichita State 288-295-300-883 (+19), (17) Lamar 295-302-295-892 (+28), (18) Oakland 297-306-301-904 (+40).

Individual Leaders
(1) Carson Bacha (Auburn) 71-68-66-205 (-11), (2) Max Sturdza (Florida Atlantic) 69-69-69-207 (-9), (t-3) Reed Lotter (Auburn) 69-68-71-208 (-8), (t-3) Cameron Clarke (Auburn) 69-70-69-208 (-8), (t-3) Brendon Valdes (Auburn) 67-70-71-208 (-8), (t-6) Ryan Eshleman (Auburn) 71-68-70-209 (-7), (t-6) J.M. Butler (Auburn) 74-66-69-209 (-7), (t-8) Palmer Yennick (Toledo) 69-71-70-210 (-6), (t-8) Bradley Scott (Troy) 69-68-73-210 (-6), (t-10) Garrett Engle (Chattanooga) 72-71-68-211 (-5), (t-10) Patrick Sparks (UNCW) 69-72-70-211 (-5), (t-10) Robbie Latter (Stetson) 69-72-71-212 (-4).

South Alabama Scores
(t-30) Jordan Plunkett 71-76-72-218 (+2), (t-30) Will Skipp 71-75-72-218 (+2), (t-38) Jack Hearn 73-74-73-220 (+4), (t-56) Hugo Thyr 72-75-76-223 (+7), (t-72) Eli Mitchell 73-78-77-228 (+12)

Up Next
South Alabama returns to action on March 19 in a three-day tournament – the Linger Longer Intercollegiate – hosted by Mercer in Lake Oconee (Ga.).

Quotable from head coach Ben Hannan
Talk about the play this week after almost a week away …
We had prepared well, and the guys have been playing well at home.  We haven't gotten that to transfer into our rounds on the road yet this spring.  This week we had a lot of solid golf, but we had only 2 rounds under par all week and that is not enough to compete the way we want to.  
 
The opening round, guys had success and were able to get into the top 10, talk about that round …
The first round was very solid. We had 5 guys in the game the entire day shooting 5 rounds between 70 and 73.  Rounds like that are a hot putter away from someone shooting 5 or 6 under resulting in a great team score.  The second round the conditions were more difficult and we got off to a poor start and didn't make enough birdies coming in to balance it out. Played better in the last round but still only had 1 round under par and didn't really make up any ground.  

Jordan and Will played well this week. What was working?
Both Jordan and Will hit the ball solid all week which was important because it was hard to chip off of the dormant rough to elevated greens.  They gave themselves a lot of looks throughout all 3 rounds. Both were very consistent this week and when they get the putts to start dropping, they are in position to shoot very low. 
  
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