PITTSFORD, NY – Marshall Meisel (Wake Forest) drained a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th to take the 54-hole lead (-7) on Friday at the 82nd Monroe Invitational. Two big movers on the day were Matthew Kress (Florida) and William Duquette (Kansas), each shooting -4 in the round to move to -6 overall. At -6, Kress and Duquette are in a tie for second place, along with Anthony Delisanti (Valparaiso) and Luke Haskew (LSU). Kress and Duquette began the day tied for 13th place. Delisanti, the 36-hole leader, was +3 on the day and Haskew, the 18-hole leader, was +2. The cut after Friday’s round was +3.
Peyton Snoeberger (Purdue) and Micahel Mays (Florida State) each had rounds of 68 to move to -5 for the tournament and tied for sixth place.
Georgia Southern’s Reece Coleman had one of the largest jumps of the day, starting at 1-over par before carding a 65 to move to -4, tied for eighth place with Gustav Frimodt (TCU) and Connor Gaunt (LSU). The -5 was the best round of the day.
Round 3 Photos | Round 3 Scores
Meisel, who was tied for second after the opening round and tied for third after 36 holes, was able to grind out a score under par on Friday. After going out in 37 and notching a bogey on the par-4 10th, Meisel was able to save par on the 11th to keep his round afloat. Following the round, he said, “I missed a lot of short putts for par.” “I made a 35-foot putt for par on 11 – that really just kept me in it. I would have been 4-over if I had missed that. That gave my round some new life. I just started to putt well after that.”
The Chevy Chase, MD native will look to cap off his strong week (65, 69, 69) in Saturday’s final round. “I need to hit it a little bit better to take some stress off my putter tomorrow,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d be in the lead after 10 holes today.”
One player on Meisel’s heels on Saturday will be Kress, who was the No. 5 spot on the golf team for 2023 National Champion Florida. On Friday, he was red-hot on the front, going out in 31, including five birdies. After the round he said, “The chances I got with wedges, I hit them close and I made those putts.” “It’s not easy – even if you hit it to six feet, you can be playing 1-2 feet of break. The putter was good.” He cooled off a bit on the back and finished the round with three-straight bogeys.
Kress is making his second appearance at the Monroe Invitational after playing with a few other Florida teammates in 2022. Following a great first experience, Kress said he made a concerted effort to try and get other teammates to play at the 2023 Monroe when they were planning their summer schedule in the spring. Said Kress, “It’s great – I love playing this tournament.” “I played it for the first time last year and we had some Florida guys here. We came back and I basically convinced half our team to come and play. We were hanging out yesterday at the barbeque, watching Parker Bell (teammate) thrive in his element at the long drive contest. It’s great team bonding in the summer.”
Kress and some other teammates will also be playing together in the upcoming Canadian Amateur Open.
After rounds of 67 and 71, Duquette was able to play his way into contention with a third round 66. He set out and accomplished his goal at the beginning of the day. “That is kind of what I was looking for today,” he said. “I didn’t know how deep the leaders were going to go. I was just trying to shoot around -4, -5, or -6 today and I did that, so I’m pretty happy.”
Andrew Swanson (Clemson) and J. Holland Humphries (SMU) are tied for 11th place at -3, while Gregory Odom Jr. (Howard), Parker Bell (Florida), and Davis Cooper (Kansas) are all at -2 in a tie for 13th place.
Final round action is taking place today.