NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional First-Round Results
CONOVER, N.C. – The Eckerd College men's golf program was hovering near the top of the leaderboard in an impressive showing as the first round of the NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional hosted by Lenoir-Rhyne University came to a close on Monday.
Led by sophomore
Jeff Evanier's 70 (-2), the Tritons carded a team score of 295 (+7) and remain just nine shots out of the lead heading into Tuesday's second round.
EC is currently tied for seventh with second-ranked Barry University in the 20-team field.
The top five teams along with two individuals from non-qualifying team advance on to Louisville, Ky., for the NCAA Championships later this month.
“You can never qualify for the event after the first round, but you can definitely put yourself out of position after the first day,” EC Head Coach
Bill Buttner said. “You qualify on the third day. On the first day, you make sure you don't shoot yourself in the foot. Curtis (Lahey) and Greg (Reilly) stepped up wonderfully and that saved our day.”
J.P. Griffin of Georgia Southwestern University leads all players after his 68 (-4) held up throughout the course of the day. The Sunshine State Conference-affiliated Panthers of Florida Tech (286) hold a two-shot lead with Lynn University (288), among others including Eckerd, hot on the trail.
The Tritons had one of the last tee-times on the docket, hitting the links with Columbus State University and Florida Tech pairings at Rock Barn Golf & Spa beginning at noon.
In just the program's second Super Regional appearance, Eckerd finished a practice round on Sunday, and were able to get a feel for the course layout and different challenges presented.
“It's the kind of golf course where you just can't get too aggressive with it,” he added. “It's a matter of playing the course smart and I think we did that today.”
At one point throughout the day on EC's front nine (holes 10-18 on the course), the Tritons were locked in a tie for second with Rollins College and Barton College following a birdie shortly before making the turn by senior
Callum Georgallides on No. 17.
Evanier is tied for third overall in the talented field, just two strokes off the pace set by Griffin. After making bogey on his second hole of the day, he recorded two birdies on a pair of long par 5's.
His strong momentum carried through and following six consecutive pars, Evanier came through with another birdie down the stretch on yet another par 5.
“That's Jeff's calling card,” Buttner said. “He overpowers par 5's. He was able to take advantage of them and if we would have putted better, he could have gone really low with the potential to shoot 66.”
Reilly and Lahey each posted 2-over-par 74 in their first round of action while Georgallides came through with a 77 (+5).
Paul Henderson fired a 79 aided by a birdie on the back shortly before coming into the clubhouse.
The Tritons will get going early tomorrow morning starting at 7:30 a.m. with tee-times being reversed. Live scoring will continue to be provided on
www.golfstat.com.
