Liberty Continues Busy Stretch at the Mason Rudolph Championship

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Playing in its second event of the week, No. 43 Liberty continues a busy stretch of golf this weekend at the 2022 Mason Rudolph Championship.

The three-day, 54-hole event will be contested at the Vanderbilt Legends Club – South Course (par 71, 7,100 yards) in Franklin, Tenn., starting on Friday morning.

The tournament’s 15-team field includes eight teams currently ranked inside the top 75 in the country in the latest Golfstat national rankings: No. 3 Vanderbilt, Tennessee (No. 20), Ohio State (No. 33), Liberty (No. 43), Virginia (No. 57), West Virginia (No. 58), Mississippi State (No. 60), Cincinnati (No. 67) and Memphis (No. 74).

Play gets underway on Friday at 9:30 a.m. CST with golfers heading off the tee at No. 1 and No. 10 tees. The tournament will conclude with 18 holes on Saturday and Sunday.

Now on The Tee – Liberty’s Starting Five (2021-22 Stroke Average)

• Kieran Vincent (71.38)
• Austin Duncan (72.13)
• Isaac Simmons (72.50)
• Jonathan Yaun (72.67)
• Austin Barbin (73.62)
• Individual: Connor Polender (73.72)

Tournament Reflections – Liberty’s Last Showing at the Mason Rudolph Championship:   

• Liberty has participated in this tournament five times, playing consecutively in the Vanderbilt hosted tournament from 2015 to 2019.
• Liberty finished in third place in 2018 (9-over par 861/291-279-291) and as the event’s runner-up in 2019 (12-under par 840/280-278-282).
• The Flames have two current players on their roster that participated in the 2019 Mason Rudolph Championship.
• Kieran Vincent (72-72-73) and Jonathan Yaun (72-75-70) both finished tied for 47^th place in 2019 with a 4-over par 217.
• The Mason Rudolph Championship was not contested in 2020 and 2021.
• Liberty was scheduled to participate in the 2020 tournament before the remainder of the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the 18^th Green – Recapping Liberty’s Last Time Out

• Liberty is coming off a fourth-place finish at The Hayt, contested earlier this week on Sunday and Monday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
• Following three trips around the Sawgrass Country Club (par 72, 6,966 yards), the Flames posted a score of 8-over par 872 (291-293-288).
• The ASUN Conference was well represented at the top of the leaderboard for the North Florida hosted tournament.
• No. 38 North Florida claimed the team title with a 4-under par 860 (276-296-288), while FGCU finished in third place with a 4-over par 868 (293-293-282).
• Kieran Vincent paced the way for the Flames, finishing in fifth place with a 3-under par 213 (71-70-72).

Birdies and Bogeys – Liberty Team Notes

• Liberty enters the weekend ranked No. 43 in the latest Golfstat team rankings.
• Liberty has posted six top-five finishes in eight events during the 2021-22 season.
• Kieran Vincent individually ranks No. 44 in the country in the latest Golfstat rankings.
• Vincent has posted 24 career top-10 finishes during his career at Liberty, which ranks second to Liberty Athletics Hall of Famer Robert Karlsson (31 – 2009-12).
• Jonathan Yan currently leads the Flames with a last-round scoring average of 71.14, followed by Isaac Simmons (71.33)
• Kieran Vincent leads the team in par-3 (3.07) and par-4 (4.06) scoring average; Isaac Simmons leads Liberty in par-5 scoring average (4.57).
• Kieran Vincent leads Liberty in pars per round (11.81), followed by Austin Duncan (11.58).
• Kieran Vincent ranks No. 23 in the country in fewest bogeys per round (2.10 average).
• The Flames finished their fall season ranked No. 22 in the Golfweek Men’s Golf Team Rankings, No. 24 in the Bushnell/Golfweek Division I Coaches Poll and No. 26 in the Golfstat team rankings
• Liberty finished the fall season with a 288.33 team stroke average, the fourth-best mark in program history.
• Liberty entered the spring season looking to defend its ASUN Championship with the 2022 conference championship set for April 24-26 at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga.
• The Flames have advanced to the NCAA Regionals nine of the last 10 regional events and to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship three times in program history (2012, 2019 and 2021).

Looking at the Latest Rankings:

Ball State (No. 166)

Cincinnati (No. 67)

Kennesaw State (No. 193)

Liberty (No. 43)

Louisiana Tech (No. 105)

Memphis (No. 74)

Mississippi State (No. 60)

MTSU (No. 89)

Ohio State (No. 33)

Santa Clara (No. 126)

Tennessee (No. 20)

Vanderbilt (No. 3)

Virginia (No. 57)

West Virginia (No. 58)

Western Kentucky (No. 190)

Note: Golfstat national rankings (as of March 29)

Course Information:

• Vanderbilt Legends Club – South Course (Franklin, Tenn.)
• Par 71, 7,100 yards

Following the Flames at the Mason Rudolph Championship:

• Live stats will be available at Golfstat.com
• Twitter @LibertyGolf
• Instagram @LibertyGolf
• Round 1 Tee Time: Friday at 9:30 a.m./CST (No. 1 tee)