The Lee men's golf team saved its best golf for the back nine in Tuesday's final round of the Kiawah Island Invitational to catapult up the leaderboard and finish tied for third in the 18-team field.
Freshman Beck Burnette led the way for the Flames with a sizzling 5-under 67 in the final round to pair with an opening round 74 and a 141 total a tie for 10th.
"Beck showed us what he's capable of today, he really lifted our team up and stepped up for us. He was on a mission today, and did a great job of staying focused and patient," said Lee head coach John Maupin.
The Flames topped two Gulf South Conference rivals in Valdosta State and West Georgia with a final round 279 for a 5-under 571 total.
"We turned in a really nice round today.
I thought we played extremely well on the last 12 holes today. We still have some things to clean up, particularly course management. That has to improve to capitalize on all the birdies we make," said Maupin.
"I thought all of our guys did a good job of responding well to adversity this week. Scott (Odell) and Dylan (Lillard) got off to poor starts today and were 3-over and 5-over early and came back to shoot under par. I love that fight. Along those lines Parker Gray battled back well today and shot -3 on the back nine."
Sophomore Connor Pollman fired rounds of 72 and 71 to finish with a 143 total and was matched by Odell with a 20thplace finish. Lillard carded a 75-71-146 and Parker Gray bounced back from an opening round 77 to post a 2-under 70.
"Connor was a very consistent presence for our team this week. He definitely led the way in good decision making and execution, pleased with the way he carried himself out there."
We picked up some really important head to head wins, but we could have gotten off to a better start yesterday and competed for the win. We have some good momentum heading to Columbus," acknowledged Maupin.
Lander University made up six strokes on host USC-Aiken in the final round to post a three-stroke victory with a 557 (-19). Aiken posted a 560 in second while Lee and Mount Olive came in third at 571.
Lander's Jon Parker (-10, 134) edged teammate Chris Fortenberry by one stroke to capture the individual title. Eric Shea (Southern Wesleyan) and Leonardo Bono (USC-Aiken) followed two shots back at -8.
The Flames will look to continue the moment built from Tuesday's final round as they prepare to take part in the Cougar Invitational in Columbus, Ga. starting Monday.