GOLF | Gaels Look For Second Round Improvement At NCAAs
5/28/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
MILTON, Ga. -- The Saint Mary's golf team started out hot in its opening round at the NCAA Tournament this morning, going 3-under par in its first six holes at the Capital City Club's Crabapple Course.
But, after starting their early morning round with soft greens and thick layer of dew on the ground, the real heat of the Deep South dried out the course and scores began to rise like the temperature.
The Gaels ended their first round of the national championships with a 7-over par 287 and, after waiting for each of the 30 teams in the field to finish, was in a tie for 19th place at the end of the day.
Saint Mary's returns to the course tomorrow at 9:40 a.m. (Pacific) for the second round of the 54-hole event. For the second-straight day, the Gaels will be paired with golfers from Southeastern Conference programs from South Carolina and Texas A&M.
On Thursday, the teams will be paired with teams based on placing. The top eight teams after 54-holes of stroke play will advance to the quarterfinals of match play that begins on Friday. The team champion is determined by the match play finals that take place Sunday.
Junior Dalan Refioglu and sophomore Jonathan De Los Reyes paced Saint Mary's with 1-over par 71 on the 7,319-yard, par 70 Crabapple Course.
"I thought it was an up-and-down round for us today," said SMC head coach Scott Hardy. "We did some good things. We didn't convert a lot of putts, which is something we are capable of doing. That kept us from shooting the score we were hoping to. But, by no means did we shoot ourselves out of it. When you play a 3-round, 54-hole event like this, you are not going to play great every round."
Refioglu, who is even par in his four NCAA Tournament rounds this year, opened today's round with four-straight pars before nailing a 168-yard approach on the par 4 14th hole to within five feet of the pin and made the birdie put to go to 1-under.
The Foster City, Calif. native then, like a couple of his teammates went through a tough stretch to close out the back nine. He suffered bogeys on 17 and 18 to move to 1-over at the turn. The Gaels dropped five strokes on the final three holes of the back nine.
"I played pretty solid today, had a lot of good swings," said Refioglu. "The course is tough, though. I just kept grinding, stayed patient and kept trying to give myself opportunities to come back in the end. I still finished over par, though, so that was disappointing."
De Los Reyes, who was named to the Division I PING All-West Region team today, took a different path to his 1-over par score for the round. The Antioch, Calif. native started with a double-bogey on the opening 10th hole before carding 3-straight birdies on 11-13 to move to 1-under par.
He made bogey on the 516-yard, par 4 16th hole that normally plays as a par 5. After eight-straight pars, he dropped another stroke with a bogey on his final hole to finish with a 1-over 71.
"It was pretty cool in the morning," said De Los Reyes. "Then, around our fifth or sixth hole it started to get warm. The wind didn't pick up. It just got hotter progressively through the round."
Senior Ben Geyer carded a 2-over par 72 on the day. The 2013 West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Year opened his round with five pars before making birdie on the 220-yard par 3 14th hole. He suffered bogeys on 16 and 18 to make the turn at 1-over.
After carding a bogey on the fifth hole, he pulled a stroke back with an 18-foot birdie putt on the par 4 seventh hole. Geyer finished at 2-over with a bogey on the final hole of the round.
Four of the five Gaels suffered bogey on the par 4 ninth hole.
Classmate Mac McClung, who entered the championships with six straight rounds of par or better, finished with a 3-over par 73. The Fremont, Calif. native shot even par on the back before suffering three bogeys on the front nine.
Junior Alex Bungert suffered an early double bogey on the par 5 12th hole and carded bogies on holes 15, 8 and 9 to finish at 5-over par.
The weather forecast for tomorrow shows similar conditions as today with a slight increase in temperature - reaching a high of 88 degrees in the late afternoon.
GOLF | 2019 NCAA Regionals Day 3
Wednesday, May 15
GOLF | 2019 NCAA Regionals Day 2
Tuesday, May 14
GOLF | 2019 NCAA Regionals Day 1
Monday, May 13
GOLF | 2019 NCAA Selection Show
Thursday, May 02
