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By: Stephen Williams

SAINT AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Leading after each of the three rounds, the Columbus State University men's golf team went wire-to-wire to win the Peach Belt Conference Championship on Sunday. The three-round tournament was played at the Slammer and Squire Course in Saint Augustine, Fla.
 
For the Cougars, the championship is their sixth in program history and their first since winning in 2007.
 
Columbus State posted an eight-over par 296 on Sunday to finish with an 873 54-hole total. The Cougars narrowly held off 12^th-ranked Flagler (875) to win by two shots. No. 11 USC Aiken (892) finished a distant third, followed by No. 15 Georgia Southwestern (898) and Lander (899).
 
"I am obviously very proud of the boys and their accomplishment today," CSU Director of Golf Mark Immelman said. "It is very hard to play with the lead, as they did for three days straight. I thought it was very meaningful that Robert Mize helped lead us to the title today, given that he has been our leading player for a long time now.
 
"The cool thing is that we still have things we can tighten up before we head into the NCAA Regional. Here's to a couple days rest and then some time spent at the drawing board."
 
The conference championship came down to the final three holes as CSU and Flagler were all even with four golfers already in the clubhouse. TaeHyung Kim was the only Cougar left on the course and the senior came up huge down the stretch.
 
Kim picked up a birdie on the 16^th hole and added pars on 17 and 18. His Flagler counterpart turned in pars on 16 and 17 before firing a bogey on the 18^th. The two-shot differential proved to be the different in the championship.
 
Kim got off to a slow start to his day, bogeying two of the first three holes and making the turn at three-over. His second nine was much better though, turning in three birdies to shoot two-over par 74 on the final day. Kim tied for second overall at one-under, one shot back of first place.
 
Gideon van der Vyver earned a top-10 finish of his own after a round of 75 on Sunday. The sophomore picked up birdies on two and 10 to help him to an eighth-place finish at four-over par.
 
The early portion of Sunday's round belonged to Robert Mize, as the senior came sprinting out of the gates. Mize birdied the first two holes of the day and added two more on the fourth and fifth. Another birdie on the eighth helped close out the front side in just 31 strokes (five-under) for Mize. A couple of bogeys on the back dropped his score, but Mize closed with a round of 71 and finished in ninth-place at five-over.
 
Yannick Gumowski and Duncan van der Vyver each shot rounds of 76 over the final 18 to close out the Cougar score. Both players had a single birdie on the day, as the pair tied for 11^th overall at seven-over.
 
Columbus State will now prepare for the NCAA South/Southeast Regional, which will be held May 2-4 in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.