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State's Hill tied for lead at NCAA golf tourney
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Published: May 27, 2009
TOLEDO, Ohio
N.C. State's Matt Hill, Northwestern's Jonathan Bowers and Illinois' Scott Langley shot 2-under-par 69s to lead the individual race, while Oklahoma State and Georgia shared the team lead through yesterday's opening medal-play round at the NCAA Division I men's golf championship.
Bowers battled showers while shooting his 69 in the morning, while Langley and Hill fought through winds and chilly temperatures in the afternoon at the 7,255-yard Inverness Club.
Hill, a contender for national player of the year, said he was pleased that he persevered, even though he three putted the final hole for a bogey.
"I feel like I put myself in really good position," he said. "I have a lot of confidence going into tomorrow."
TCU's Tom Hoge triple bogeyed his final hole and shot a 70 along with San Diego's Alex Ching, UCLA's Philip Francis, Tennessee's David Holmes and Washington's Nick Taylor. Only eight players in the 156-man field broke par.
Freshman Daniel Meggs shot 1-under on his second nine to finish with a round of 2-over 73 and lead Wake Forest to a round of 302, placing it in 20th place.
Fellow freshman Lee Bedford made two birdies in his round of 4-over 75, while senior Dustin Groves and juniors Brendan Gielow and Travis Wadkins all posted rounds of 77.
"We just didn't have a really good team round today," said Coach Jerry Haas. "One or two holes seem to get us today and we had a few three putts that didn't help. But if you look at it, it's probably going to take something around 23-, 24-, 25-over to get in the top-8 by the end of the week. We didn't make it easy on ourselves with today's round, but we're still going to be right there."
Senior Clark Klaasen fired a 1-over-par 72 yesterday to lead Duke into a 10th-place tie with a 13-over-par 297. Junior Adam Long and senior Michael Quagliano each shot 2-over-par 73s to help pace the Blue Devils.
"Clark, Adam and Michael played really solid golf from start to finish," said Coach Jamie Green. "I know Adam was maybe not quite as happy with his finish, but the reality of it was really good play for 18 holes from those guys. To play well out here you have to continue to drive the ball in the fairway and doing that the next couple of days is going to be a key for us. There is still a lot of golf today and our best golf is still in front of us."
Klaasen opened the day par-par before carding his first birdie of the day on the par-3 third hole. After a bogey on No. 4, Klaasen sank an eight-foot putt for birdie No. 5 to move back to 1-under-par. Klaasen hit a rough patch in the middle of the round with bogeys on No. 7, No. 10 and No. 13 to fall to 2-over-par. He rebounded to play the final five holes at 1-under-par with a birdie on the par 4 16th hole. Klaasen is tied for 16th, three shots off the opening-round leaders.
Top-seeded Oklahoma State, led by Trent Leon's 71, totaled 4-over-par 288 and was joined there by Georgia, led by 71s from Russell Henley and Brian Harman.
The Cowboys didn't count the 74 of Kevin Tway, playing on the same course where his father, Bob, holed a sand shot on the 72nd hole to stun Greg Norman and win the 1986 PGA Championship.
This is the first year the tournament is being played under a combination medal- and match-play format. All 30 qualifying teams and the six individual players will compete in three days of medal play. Those 54 holes will determine the medalist and will cut the field down to a final eight teams for match play. The teams will then play quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Friday, with the championship match set to start at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Chattanooga was a surprising third with 292 strokes, followed by Washington and San Diego with 293, Arizona State, Ohio State and Tennessee with 294, Michigan with 296, and Arkansas and Duke with 297.
At even-par 71 along with Leon, Henley and Harman were UCF's Simon Ward, Chattanooga's Fredrik Qvicker, Corey Nagy of UNC Charlotte and Arkansas Jamie Marshall.
Hoge was 4 under through 17 holes, but was short-sided in a greenside bunker and twice had his ball roll back at him after shots.
In addition to the PGA Championship in 1986, Inverness has hosted the 1993 PGA (Paul Azinger edged Norman in a playoff), U.S. Open in 1920 (Ted Ray), 1931 (Billy Burke), 1957 (Dick Mayer) and 1979 (Hale Irwin), the U.S. Amateur (Craig Stadler) in 1973 and the U.S. Senior Open in 2003 (Bruce Lietzke).
NCAA Men's Championship
(At Toledo, Ohio, Par 71, 7,255 yards)
First-round team scores
Oklahoma State 288, Georgia 288, Chattanooga 292, Washington 293, San Diego 293, Arizona State 294, Ohio State 294, Tennessee 294, Michigan 296, Arkansas 297, Duke 297, Texas A&M 298, Northwestern 298, Alabama 299, Illinois 299, TCU 299, Central Florida 300, Georgia Tech 301, Iowa 301, Wake Forest 302, Texas Tech 303, Southern Cal 305, Stanford 305, South Carolina 3-5, Oregon 306, Virginia 306, Texas 308, Florida 310, Arizona 310
First-round individual results
T1. Jonathan Bowers (Northwestern) 69, Scott Langley (Illinois) 69, Matt Hill (N.C. State) 69, T4. Alex Ching (San Diego) 70, Tom Hoge (TCU) 70, Philip Francis (UCLA) 70, David Holmes (Tennessee) 70, T9. Simon Ward (Central Florida) 71, Fredrik Qvicker (Chattanooga) 71, Corey Nagy (UNC Charlotte) 71, Russell Henley (Georgia) 71, Trent Leon (Oklahoma State) 71, Jamie Marshall (Arkansas) 71, Brian Harman (Georgia) 71, T16. Brad Wright (Ohio State) 72, Vaughn Snyder (Ohio State) 72, Alexander Sitompul (Michigan) 72, Clark Klaasen (Duke) 72, Lion Kim (Michigan) 72, Morgan Hoffmann (Oklahoma State) 72, Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State) 72, Jesper Kennegard (Arizona State) 72, Darren Wallace (Washington) 72, Chesson Hadley (Georgia Tech) 72, Bronson Burgoon (Texas A&M) 72, Hughes Joannes (Lamar) 72, Kyle Stanley (Clemson) 72
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