Michigan State put itself right in the mix after one round at the Folds of Honor Collegiate, with two Spartans in the top 10 and four in the top 20 following a 5-under par 279 at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven.
That opening effort has MSU in second place among 14 teams, seven shots behind Georgia Tech, which set the pace at 12-under par 272 behind freshman Max Emberson’s 8-under par 63. Notre Dame sits third at 4-under par 280, followed by Kansas in fourth at 1-under par 2830 and Alabama in fifth at even-par 284.
Junior Julian Menser led the Spartans with a 3-under par 68, the second-best 18-hole score of his career, and he is tied for fourth. Menser made his move on the back nine, going 4-under there with birdies at the par-4, 454-yard 17th and the par-5, 538-yard 18th.
Senior McCoy Biagioli is just one shot behind after a 2-under par 69, leaving him tied for eighth. His card featured five birdies and 12 pars.
The depth showed up behind them as well. Senior Lorenzo Pinili and sophomore Luke Mueller are both tied for 20th after posting even-par 71s, while senior Lucas Acevedo is tied for 47th at 3-over par 74. Pinili closed with one birdie and a tournament-best 16 pars, and Mueller added two birdies while tying for fourth-best in the field with 14 pars.
Freshman Louis Goodman, playing as an individual, shot a 9-over par 80 and stands in 72nd.
The event, created five years ago as a men’s tournament by MSU men’s golf head coach Casey Lubahn and Lt. Col.
Dan Rooney, the former Kansas golfer who founded Folds of Honor, is in its second year with a women’s field. Since 2007, Folds of Honor has awarded nearly 73,000 scholarships totaling more than $340 million to the children of US Military members and first responders fallen or wounded in the line of duty.
This year’s combined field features 22 different colleges and universities across 27 teams - 15 men’s and 12 women’s - including several of the nation’s top programs, eight ranked in the preseason top 30, along with Service Academies, a Division II team on each side and a men’s and women’s HBCU.
In Other News...
Michigan State's Opener Exposed One Offensive Problem That Could Linger
Michigan State left its opener with a win over Toledo, but the 30-20 final did not hide the part of the performance that could become an early-season concern. The Spartans moved the ball well enough to create scoring chances, with Alessio Milivojevic completing 26 of 34 passes for 247 yards and Rodney Bullard Jr. catching seven balls for 90 yards, yet the offense too often came away without the finish it wanted.
That was the piece Pat Fitzgerald kept circling back to after the game, as Michigan State settled for field goals instead of touchdowns and left points on the table. Winning an opener still matters, especially when the offense is still settling in, but the Spartans know the margin for error shrinks quickly if drives keep stalling once they get near the end zone. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Faces A Familiar Threat In Crucial Home Tune-Up
Michigan State heads into its home tune-up against Eastern Michigan still working through the kinds of issues that can linger even after a win. The Spartans rallied past Toledo in their opener, but the performance also left room for concern, especially in red-zone offense and a defense that gave up a few damaging plays along the way. Now the focus shifts to settling in at home and cleaning up some of those early-season wrinkles before the schedule gets tougher.
The matchup carries a familiar layer of intrigue because Eastern Michigans starting quarterback is Noah Kim, the former Spartan who transferred out and now gets a chance to line up against his old team. For Michigan State, it is more than just another in-state nonconference game, since the Eagles arrive with a quarterback who knows the program from the inside and a chance to test a defense still looking for sharper consistency. It is the kind of early September game that can feel routine on paper, until one familiar face makes it a little more personal. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan States Schedule Already Looks Much Different After Week 1
Michigan States season opener against Toledo came with the usual first-week uncertainty, but the bigger picture around the schedule already looks different after just one weekend. The Spartans handled their own business with a 30-20 win, and around them a long list of future opponents started shaping the early-season landscape with a mix of wins and losses that could matter later in the fall.
There were signs of trouble and signs of strength all over the slate, from Eastern Michigan and Toledo in the MAC picture to major conference teams such as Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, UCLA, Michigan, Washington and Oregon. Notre Dame and Rutgers each had especially notable openers, and while the early results do not settle much this far out, they do give Michigan State a better sense of how the road ahead might look when the schedule tightens and the stakes rise. [Read more 🡒]