WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The Vanderbilt men’s golf team had a solid opening performance at the 2007 NCAA Championships, shooting a plus-four 284 to stand in a four-way tie for 12th place after day one at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club.
Senior Luke List led the Commodores, shooting a one-under 69 to tie for 15th place after 18 holes.
Vanderbilt began the day early on the 10th hole, teeing off with Florida State and Duke at 6:20 a.m. CT. Finishing in the day’s first wave (with half of the 30-team field), the Commodores got to the clubhouse in fifth position (behind Minnesota, Texas, Florida State and Clemson). Only six teams playing in the afternoon finished ahead of the Commodores.
“We started playing better as the day went on,” Head Coach Tom Shaw said. “We had a bit of a slow start, but the guys rallied to keep us there at the end.”
Closing on the ninth hole, sophomore Tyler Matthews birdied three of his last four holes to come back to plus-two for the day, while freshman Hudson Johnson and List both had two birdies and three pars over their final five holes.
Sophomore Jon Curran carded only one bogey on the day, finishing at even-par to place 29th with at least 36 holes to play. The top 15 teams will make the cut for Saturday’s final round.
The Commodores used no score worse than three-over in a solid morning performance. Vanderbilt started on the back side, where the team went four-over. The front was more kind to the Commodores, as they stuck to even-par over the final nine holes.
Johnson and Matthews both went even on the back, carding rounds of two-over 72 and three-over 73, respectively. List was one-under on the front after fighting back from a double-bogey on his third hole.
Only 28 players in the field of 156 (30 teams of five, plus six individuals) shot better than even-par, including first-round leader Rob Grube of Stanford (six-under 64).
Stanford also holds the team lead by two strokes over Coastal Carolina with 54 holes left to play.
Florida, Minnesota and Texas are all tied for third place just three strokes off the pace. Charlotte, ETSU, top-ranked Georgia, Michigan State, UCLA and Florida round out the top 12. At 12th, the Commodores are tied with Alabama, Tulsa and Tennessee only nine strokes behind the Cardinal.
“We are looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow,” Shaw said. “There is room for us to improve on today’s score, and the guys just want to get back out there and play.”
Vanderbilt will tee of from the first hole at 11:30 a.m. CT Thursday, remaining in a group with Florida State and Duke for day two. On Friday, teams will be re-paired based on results through 36 holes, and the field will be cut to the 15 low teams prior to Saturday’s final round.
Live scoring of the entire event is available online at:
http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/index.cfm?tournament_id=962
Golfweek will also feature a live broadcast of the event on Friday and Saturday, available through the Golfstat web site above.
