Pirates climb up leaderboard and take fourth at Kingsmill Intercollegiate

Scotland native Alex Chalk finished an even-par 70 in the final round, as the Pirates captured a fourth-place finish in the 2018 Kingsmill Intercollegiate, held in Williamsburg, Va. Things only got better for the Pirates, as their charge up the leaderboard began in the second round on Monday and culminated in the third and final round on Tuesday. [caption id="attachment_22485" align="aligncenter" width="838"] Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption] The tournament opened on Sunday, with freshman Gregor Tait leading the Pirates in the first round. Tait shot an even-par 70, helping propel the Pirates into the tenth spot among 24 schools. At the end of the first round, Tait’s even score was sufficient enough to earn him a tie for fourth place out of the field of 127 golfers. The Pirates progression gained momentum when veteran Chris Yeom chipped in with an even-par in the second round. Yeom was able to trim six strokes from his first-round score by shooting 14 pars on the day. He ended the second round 14^th on the scoreboard with an even par, and as a team, the Pirates had jumped to sixth-place overall. The third and final round of the tournament was when the Pirates truly came together and made an impact on their total-team-score. Poised to move up, they called on Chalk to deliver a performance, and the sophomore did exactly that. Chalk was able to rack up three birdies on Tuesday to finish on par for the day. Yeom continued to have an impact on the tournament as well, finishing just one stroke over par with a score of 71. Meanwhile, Tait built off his strong performance in the first round and finished with a five-over-par for the tournament, which gave him a seventh-place finish, the third top-10 finish of his rookie campaign. Yeom and Chalk were also consistent enough to garner top-20 finishes in the Kingsmill Intercollegiate. Yeom finished in 11^th place with a score of 7-over-par, while a score of 9-over-par was sufficient enough to garner a 19^th place finish for Chalk. Following the action down in Williamsburg, the Pirates will return home, with a trip to Springdale Country Club for the Princeton Invitational set for April 7. Dalton Allison can be reached at dalton.allison@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @DaltonAllison4.