NAPLES, Fla. — Vanderbilt found Calusa Pines to be a tough course to crack Sunday in the opening round of the Calusa Cup.
Vandy’s 6-over-par 294 has the Commodores in sixth place out of nine teams going into Monday’s second 18. Wake Forest (-7) was one of only two teams to finish under par and has a three-shot lead on North Carolina.
“I was pleased with how our guys battled it in today. However, we cannot be OK with how poorly we did some of the simple things that we knew we had to do at a high level on this course,” Vandy head coach Scott Limbaugh said. “We need to be a little more locked-in and put our blinders on.”
Vanderbilt got off to a relatively solid start on the 7,320-yard, par-72 course, but the Dores struggled to pick up any momentum the rest of the day. Limbaugh’s lineup had four double bogeys and 15 bogeys for the round.
Four of the five Commodores, however, are inside the top 20 led by Matthew Riedel and William Moll. That senior duo each finished with 73s and are tied for 13th.
Cole Sherwood and Wells Williams each carded 74s and are tied for 19th. Reid Davenport (+6) is tied for 35th.
“I believe in this group and I’m excited to see who is going to step up Monday,” Limbaugh said. “We got to go play with a strong spirit and be focused from the start with everyone competing to our standards.”
Vanderbilt is scheduled to tee off at 11:45 a.m. CT Tuesday alongside Texas Tech and Arizona State.
