April 5, 2014
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The Purdue men's golf team recovered from a slow opening round and moved into seventh place all by itself with a strong second round at the Augusta Invitational held at the Forest Hills Golf Club on Saturday.
Action will finish with the final round on Sunday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. (ET) on the par-72 layout.
The 42nd-ranked Boilermakers were in a ninth-place tie after the initial 18 holes with a 4-over par 292, but rebounded with a solid second round of 5-under par 283 to sit in seventh place with a 1-under par 575.
Ahead of the Boilers is a who's-who in the national rankings as 12 of the nation's top 46 teams are competing this weekend. No. 7-ranked UCF and No. 19-ranked and defending champion Texas lead the way at 12-under par (564). No. 13-ranked Virginia Tech is third just one shot back while No. 9-ranked Illinois is in fourth at 7-under par (569).
No. 8-ranked Houston (571) and No. 27-ranked Baylor (573) are also ahead of the Boilermakers.
After 36 holes, Purdue is leading 28th-ranked Clemson, 43rd-ranked Tennessee, 22nd-ranked New Mexico, 23rd-ranked South Carolina and 46th-ranked TCU in the team race.
Freshman Austin Eoff had a sensational second round to lead Purdue during day one. The Little Rock, Ark., native recorded a career-best round of 6-under par 66 to sit in a fourth-place tie at 5-under par 139 (73-66). He is just two shots back of No. 7-ranked Greg Eason of UCF in the individual race after recording eight birdies, including four straight on holes 15-18, in his career-best second round.
Senior Adam Schenk is tied for 21st at 1-under par 143 (72-71). Schenk was even-par on his round through 13 holes when he eagled the par-5 sixth hole to move to 2-under par for his round before settling for a 1-under par 71. Schenk has now totaled 12 consecutive rounds of even or under-par rounds.
Enzo Perez is in a tie for 25th at even-par 144 (71-73). Perez had an up-and-down day, totaling eight birdies, eight bogeys and 20 pars on the day.
Stuart Macdonald is in a tie for 53rd at 5-over par 149 (76-73), while Philippe Schweizer rebounded from a tough first round to finish day one in 69th place at 9-over par 153 (80-73).
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