May 24, 2014
- NCAA Championship Round One Results
- NCAA Championship Round One Photo Gallery
- NCAA Championship Round Two Live Scoring
- NCAA Championship Round Two Tee Times
HUTCHINSON, Kan. -- With almost perfect scoring conditions greeting golfers during Saturday's resumption of the first round, the Purdue men's golf team missed a golden opportunity to move up the leaderboard.
The Boilermakers shot a 6-over par 286 to sit in a 21st-place tie with sixth-ranked Georgia and 17th-ranked Florida State after the opening round of the NCAA Championships at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Purdue was tied for ninth (out of 15 teams) after the first wave completed its first round play around noon. However, the top 15 seeds then took to the course and pushed the Boilermakers back to 21st in the standings after the first round.
No. 22-ranked South Carolina posted the low round of the day from the morning wave with an 8-under par 272. Auburn and No. 1-ranked Alabama were two shots back in a second-place tie at 6-under par 274.
Purdue trails the leader by just 14 shots and is just nine shots out of eighth place, the match play cutline, after 18 holes, almost the exact same margins it trailed after 18 holes at the NCAA Central Regional (17 strokes and 7 strokes, respectively), when Purdue surged to third after a strong final 36 holes.
Purdue was led by freshman Philippe Schweizer, who fired his second career round in the 60s with a 1-under par 69. Schweizer was steady all day long, essentially leaving the driver in his bag the final seven holes and recording three birdies and two bogeys on his round. Schweizer was 1-over par after 11 holes, but birdied the par-4 13th and the par-5 17th to move to 1-under and in a 28th-place tie after round one.
Among true freshmen in the field, Schweizer was fourth after the first round, behind Auburn's Matt Gilchrist (67) and Will Long (68) and USC standout Rico Hoey (68).
Senior Adam Schenk recorded an even-par 70 after being as low as 2-under par during his round. After a miraculous bogey to open his round yesterday afternoon, Schenk then rattled off four straight pars before back-to-back tap-in birdies on Nos. 6 and 7. He then moved to 2-under par on the par-4 13th hole, but gave both shots back on the par-3 15th when he mis-clubbed and sent his tee shot into the native fescue behind the green. He would, however, par out to remain at even-par and in 47th place.
Stuart Macdonald had a solid opening round with a 2-over par 72. He played the front nine in 1-under par, then bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 to drop to 1-over par. However, a birdie on 12 got him back to even, before a double-bogey, bogey stretch on 13 and 14 dropped him to 3-over par. But he responded with a birdie on 17 and finished his day 2-over par and in 83rd place.
Freshman Austin Eoff rounded out Purdue's scoring with a 5-over par 75. Eoff struggled on the front nine, going out in 6-over par 41 before playing the back nine in 1-under par 34. Eoff did get as low as 4-over, but a three-putt bogey on the par-5 17th dropped him back to 5-over par.
Enzo Perez struggled with consistency all day, recording a team-best four birdies during his round, but offsetting those with seven bogeys, a double-bogey and a triple-bogey en route to an 8-over par 78. Perez recorded just five pars on his afternoon.
Among teams that Purdue defeated in the opening round were Virginia Tech (12), Texas (13), USC (16), Texas A&M (20), Arkansas (24), Kentucky (32) and Kennesaw State (37). Playing partners Iowa State and Georgia State finished their first rounds at 2-under par and 5-over par, respectively.
Purdue's second round will begin at 8:40 a.m. (CT) off hole No. 10 on Sunday morning.
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