Looking back at Bendsen's 2-under-par 69 and ahead to a windy final round at the Scarlet

Bendsen hits into the final hole of his second-round
69 at the Scarlet Course on Saturday

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The second-round 69 by sophomore Sebastian Bendsen on Saturday at The Ohio State University's Scarlet Course was impressive.

The Scarlet is not an easy course. This is a place where national championships are held – 10 of them to be exact on the men's side. At 7,455 yards it is already long from the "Buckeye Tees." Add in inconsistent greens from a bad winter and the winds gusting to 15-miles per hour, and the round looks even better. 

Only an Ohio State player who sees the course on a regular basis bettered Bendsen's 2-under-par day. And while the veterans on the Kent State golf team know the Scarlet, Friday's practice round was the first time the sophomore from Denmark had stepped on the course.

I talked with associate head coach Rob Wakeling just after Bendsen singed the cup, just missing another birdie at the final hole of Saturday's 36-hole opener of the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate, and he called the round "the best by a Kent State Golfer at Ohio State in a very long time."

"And you can put three exclamation points after that," Wakeling added.

Head coach Herb Page said the round was, "the story of the year so far for Kent State Golf."

Bendsen's breakout performance was also just what Kent State men's golf needed, and not just because it kept the Golden Flashes in the fight while their seniors suffered through some uncharacteristic struggles in the second round. It helped to solve some question marks at the bottom of the Kent State lineup. The Flashes feel confident in Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Kyle Kmiecik at the one-through-three, but the four and five spots have been inconsistent.

A check of the scorecard by Bendsen and Wakeling

Bendsen moved up from four to five in part because, while he didn't score particularly well at Texas A&M the previous week, he demonstrated a grinder's mentality. That showed again at Ohio State as he hit fairway after fairway, attacking pins when accessible and making sure to miss in the right spots on all other times. The round could have been even lower as he had looks for birdie on several holes that just missed.

Add the confidence this round should give Bendsen to two solid rounds of 75 in the No. 5 spot by Jake Troyer and Kent State could be solidifying its lineup heading into the final weeks of the season and the NCAA championships. Troyer was inserted back into the No. 5 spot this week. There aren't many teams in the country that wouldn't love to see two consistent rounds of 75 from that spot on a course like the Scarlet. 

I'm heading out to the course now to see if Kent State can make a move up the leaderboard. With a good round, catching Georgia Tech is not out of the realm of possibility. The No. 5 Yellowjackets are 11 shots ahead at the start of the day.

The wind is supposed to howl even harder than yesterday. Gusts in the 20's are expected, so the Scarlet will be an even bigger challenge today with high scores likely.