Feb. 23, 2014
RIO GRANDE, P.R. -- Led by senior Adam Schenk, the Purdue men's golf team went toe-to-toe with the nation's best teams, currently sitting in fourth place after day one of the highly-competitive Puerto Rico Classic hosted at the Rio Mar Country Club (River Course).
Five of the nation's top 10 teams, and 10 of the top 43-ranked squads in the country, are in the field which will conclude with the third round on Tuesday. Tomorrow's second round will consist of 18 holes.
Individually, six of the nation's top 13 players and 23 of the nation's top 100 are in the field.
Schenk recorded the 13th-best round in school history with a six-under par 66 to lead the tournament by one shot after 18 holes. Schenk recorded six birdies and 12 pars on the day and birdied three of the first four holes to set the tone for the day. He was still three-under par through 10 holes, but then birdied three of the next four holes for his first-round leading score of 66.
Schenk's performance propelled the Boilers into fourth place with a 7-under par 281. Purdue is eight shots behind top-ranked Alabama (-15; 273) and just three strokes behind third-ranked Georgia and seventh-ranked Georgia Tech, who both fired rounds of 10-under par 278.
Michigan is fifth at 3-under par (285), while No. 42-ranked Clemson is sixth at 1-under par (287).
Schenk, ranked No. 95 in the country, leads No. 4-ranked Joey Garber of Georgia, No. 9-ranked Robby Shelton of Alabama and No. 44-ranked Cory Whitsett of Alabama by one shot, as the trio shot 5-under par 67s.
Head coach Rob Bradley also got scoring efforts from his freshman trio of Philippe Schweizer, Fernando Barco and Austin Eoff. Schweizer and Barca both fired 1-under par 71s to sit in a 17th-place tie, while Eoff struggled early, but picked it up midway through his round for a 1-over par 73, good for a tie for 33rd place.
Enzo Perez was also solid in the fifth spot, scoring a 2-over par 74 to finish round one in a tie for 42nd.
Action will get underway on Monday morning at 8 a.m. (ET).
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