OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. — The Vanderbilt men’s golf team sits in eighth place after two rounds at the the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational presented by Srixon.
“We are pleased to be right in the thick of it,” VU Head Coach Tom Shaw said. “We struggled a little bit on the front side, but held it together on the back. We may have lost a little bit of ground, but I know the guys are fired up to get back out there tomorrow.”
With 18 holes to play on Sunday, the Commodores stand at 24-over (289-295–584), only one stroke behind a three-way tie for fifth between Stanford, Arizona State and Penn State. Second-ranked Oklahoma State holds the 36-hole lead at 12-over (572), one stroke ahead of host Illinois (+13). Indiana (+20) and Texas (+21) round out the top four.
Vanderbilt is four strokes in front of top-ranked UCLA, with UCF, Northwestern, Duke, SMU and Purdue completing the field of 15 teams.
Senior Tyler Matthews and junior Hudson Johnson paced the Commodores on Saturday, both carding three-over 74’s. Matthews (72-73–145) is tied for 21st in the 75-player field, while Johnson (73-73–146) is tied for 23rd with VU sophomore Adam Hofmann (71-75) among others.
Senior Jon Curran, the fourth Commodore in the Top 30, shot a four-over 74 in the second round. Vanderbilt joins Oklahoma State as the only two teams with four players in the tournament’s Top 30. Freshman Trey DelGreco is tied for 47th after shooting a seven-over 77.
Individually, Penn State’s Kevin Foley stands at two-under with a two-stroke lead over Oklahoma State’s Trent Leon, Indiana’s Alex Martin and Arizona State’s Scott Pinkney (E).
“We can’t relax at all tomorrow,” Shaw continued. “We need to scratch and claw for every stroke we can get. We played with Stanford today — they won the championship two years ago and just missed last year — and I think our guys really saw that we could play right with teams at that level.”
The Commodores will tee off at 8 a.m. CT on Sunday, leaving from the 10th hole with Penn State and defending national champion UCLA. Golfstat will continue to run live scoring throughout the event, available on the Internet by clicking here.
The north course at the Olympia Fields Country Club has hosted four major golf championships, including the 2003 United States Open.
Vanderbilt returns home next weekend to play host to the 2008 Mason Rudolph Championship. The men’s and women’s events will be played simultaneously on the south and north courses, respectively.
