Oct. 23, 2011
ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- Cheng-Tsung Pan fired a 1-under 71 at The Golf Club of Georgia on Sunday to help Washington to a sixth-place tie after first-round action at the U.S. Collegiate Championship. USC and Auburn are tied atop the leaderboard, each shooting 6-under 282. Duke is third at -5 and tournament host Georgia Tech is -4. Florida State is the only other team under par at -2. Washington and UCLA each shot even-par 288 on the day and enter the second round tied for sixth out of 14 teams. According to Husky Coach Matt Thurmond, his team struggled on Sunday, yet did a great job of showing the resilience and moxie of a good squad. "This was the kind of round a good team has when they don't play very well," explained Thurmond. "It wasn't one of our great rounds and score wise it won't go down as anything special. But, each guy in their own way, had adversity and we just hung in there and shot even par on a challenging course when it wasn't our day.
"So, I'm excited about that." In what is becoming commonplace, the Huskies were led by their lone freshman in the lineup. Pan's 71 left him tied with seven other golfers for 13th. He had two birdies on the day, including one on the 18th hole, and just a lone bogey. "At the Prestige (site of Pan's victory last week) Pan putted really well," Thurmond said. "Today, he hit the ball just as well, he just didn't make the putts." "The greens are really fast and have a lot of break in them," Thurmond added. "We're still adjusting to them, but I thought we putted pretty well as a whole today. Pan just didn't feel like he made any putts today." Chris Williams and Cory McElyea each shot even par 72 and are tied for 21st. Williams got off to a slow start and found himself at 3-over through six holes. His score stayed that way until back-to-back birdies on No.'s 11 and 12 and another on No. 14 brought him back to even. He would bogey the 17th hole, but answered with a birdie on the closing hole. "He has done that a couple tournaments in a row," Thurmond said about Williams' slow start. "We would like for him to get off to a better start, but sure enough he fought back and shot even par to be in good position." McElyea also ended his day with a birdie on 18 to get his score to even for the round. Sophomore Trevor Simsby shot 1-over 73 and is tied for 31st, while junior Charlie Hughes was 4-over 76 for the day and is tied for 51st. The Trojans Steve Lim leads the tournament after firing an impressive 6-under 66. He has a one-stroke advantage over Dominic Bozelli of Auburn and Duke's Julian Suri. Washington is slated to start teeing off at 10:40 a.m. ET for Monday's second round and will be paired with Georgia Tech and Auburn.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
