Murray State University Athletics
NCAA Golf Championship - Freshman Leads Racers Round 1
5/20/2010 6:30:00 PM | Men's Golf
The Murray State Racers made their first appearance in the NCAA Men's Golf Championship in 19 years Thursday when they began play at Warren GC in the Notre Dame Regional in Notre Dame, Ind.
The Racers' first shot (since their last appearance in the NCAA Championship in 1991) was struck at 9:10 a.m. local time by freshman Patrick Newcomb who started his round at the 10th hole and promptly made six straight pars before making back to back birdies. He made the turn at 1-under par 34 and had a chance to finish even, but made double-bogey at the ninth hole and finished with a 2-over par 72 and was 29th in the field of 75 competitors.
Entering the 14-team NCAA event as the Ohio Valley Conference champions, the Racers had high hopes of playing well enough to get one of the coveted spots in the top-5 and advance to the NCAA Finals in Chattanooga, Tenn., June 1-6.
However, the Racers played a mostly indifferent round one on the Warren GC track that was playing to a par of 70 and 7,023 yards.
MSU ended the day with a 297 and tied with Detroit Mercy, ahead of 14th place St. Francis (PA) at 319 and five shots behind Duke in 11th place at 292.
The Racers are 13 shots from the final spot to advance to the NCAA Finals.
After the 72 from Patrick Newcomb, the Racers had a 73 from Jared Wolfe for a spot in 36th place. Cameron Carrico and Chris Griffin carded a pair of 76's and shared 58th place, while Nick Newcomb was in 68th place after a 78.
The No. 1 seed Stanford ended round one in first place with a 277, two shots in front of No. 2 seed Florida at 279, while LSU was in third place at 280. Florida State had a spot in fourth place at 283, with Virginia Tech (284), Northwestern (284), Michigan (285), Indiana (285), Iowa (288) and North Carolina State (289) making up the top-10.
The individual leader was Michigan's Alexander Sitompul who fired a 4-under par 66.
Friday's round two starts a 36-hole sprint to see which five teams and the top-individual not on those teams will advance to the NCAA Finals.
The Racers will be paired North Carolina State and Duke in round two and start from the 10th hole with Nick Newcomb teeing off at 8:50 a.m. eastern time. Chris Griffin has the 9 a.m. tee time, before Cameron Carrico begins at 9:10 a.m. Jared Wolfe starts at 9:20 a.m., with Patrick Newcomb playing the role as anchor with the 9:30 a.m. start time
