(Portions of this story courtesy of the Oglethorpe University website)
HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. - The 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships got underway Tuesday at the Mission Inn Resorts in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida with host institution Oglethorpe University jumping out to the lead following round one. Complete Leaderboard
The Stormy Petrels fired a team total of 285 (-3) on the 6,895 yard par-72 Las Colinas Course to edge in front of second place Claremont-Mudd Scripps (289, +1) and third place Christopher Newport (290, +2). The top-8 team scores turned in on Tuesday came from the more forgiving Colinas Course with the 6,926 yard par-72 El Campeon Course playing significantly more difficult.
So how did Oglethorpe manage to be the lone team under par after the first round? By being the only squad in the field to not card a double bogey or worse in their 90 combined holes of golf. "That was one of our goals for the Championship – keep the big numbers off the card," said Oglethorpe Head Coach Jim Owen. "These courses are very difficult, and if you make it more difficult by scoring big numbers, you're going to have problems."
The University of Texas at Tyler and Guilford College managed the conditions on the El Campeon Course best, each carding identical team totals of 300 (+12). Gustavus Adolphus College carded a 301 (+13) on El Campeon to position themselves nicely with a trip over to Las Colinas for round two tomorrow.
Individually, Oglethorpe's Anthony Maccaglia and Mudd-Scripps' Brad Shigezawa are tied after posting matching 68's on Las Colinas. Maccaglia closed his round with consecutive birdies to match Shigezawa, whose afternoon featured seven birdies. Andrew Bateman and Mike Westo of Methodist University, along with Brian Jaeger of Christopher Newport University, are in a three-way tie for third after firing rounds of 2-under par 70. As was the case with the team scoring, the top-8 individual scores all came from players on Las Colinas.
A bunched group of 11 players are tied for 9th place overall after carding even par rounds of 70. In that group of 11 are four individuals who handled the El Campeon Course with the lowest scores. Thos individuals are Ryna Dagerman (Emory University), Simon Erlandsson (Gustavus Adolphus), Alex Kapraun (University of St. Thomas – Minnesota) and Tyler McMorrow (Texas-Tyler).
Centre College's Grant Hinton, playing as an individual, shot a first-round 81 (+9) and is currently tied for 141st place.
Round two will get underway at 7 a.m. Tuesday with the field being cut down to the top 15 teams for Thursday and Friday's action.
