WEST POINT — There’s no place like home, and for Mississippi State men’s golf senior Hunter Logan, home is West Point’s Mossy Oak Golf Club.
The No. 21 Bulldogs held their annual home tournament, the Mossy Oak Collegiate, over the last two days, finishing third among 18 teams with a cumulative 38-under over three rounds.
Logan was the big hitter amongst the group, pacing the Bulldogs with a 64 in the second round as he finished with a 54-hole career-low of 12-under.
“For me, it’s just a lot of experience on the course,” Logan said. “It’s our home golf course, so I play there a lot and know the greens pretty well. I think another thing was preparation, having a good couple weeks of work, good couple weeks of practice.”
Career and program records were set on Tuesday, setting up for an exciting finish to the regular season at the Mason Rudolph Championship next week.
“It was great being in the thick of it,” Mississippi State head coach Dusty Smith said. “Our goal is always to have a chance of winning a golf tournament with nine holes to go and we put ourselves in the position to do that.”
The Bulldogs lost by two strokes to No. 15 Tennessee, shooting 6-under in the last round while the Volunteers went off, shooting 13-under in the final round.
Tuesday saw Mississippi State shoot a program-record 265 in the second round, a cumulative 23-under, highlighted by Logan’s 64, shooting 6-under on the back nine.
“In that second round when he birdied 9, 10, 11 and 12, you’re just kind of looking at that and you’re knowing that Hunter is playing the golf course like he typically does,” Smith said. “I’ve seen him do that quite a bit when he’s playing in qualifying.”
Over a nine-hole stretch, Logan shot 7-under, attacking the back nine well, something Smith said is typical of him when playing on Mossy Oak.
A strategy to go easier on the front nine and then play aggressive to finish things out worked out well for the Caledonia alum Logan, who finished tied for third on the individual leaderboard at the Collegiate.
His performance this week follows up what he did from March 17-19 at the Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Georgia, finishing second individually with a 54-hole score of 7-under.
“I had a sit-down meeting with my coach at the end of last season and he told me ‘Hey, you’re a really good player,’” Logan said. “‘You need to work on yourself and your attitude, not being so negative and hard on yourself.’ It was learning that golf is an imperfect game and you’re never going to have your best stuff. When you do, it’s not going to last very long. Learning how to handle when adversity hits and roll with the punches.”
Logan has developed into one of the best golfers on the Bulldogs, a deep roster of talent that showed what Mississippi State can bring to the table and what it’s brought all season.
The postseason is right around the corner, and after three-straight top-3 finishes in their last three tournaments, the Bulldogs are peaking at the right time.
“We have a lot of experience,” Logan said. “We have a lot of guys that wouldn’t be here because of the COVID year. This is by far our best chance.”
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