May 19, 2005
Nashville, Tenn. – Chan Song continued his strong play of late with a 3-under-par 68 Thursday, but third-ranked Georgia Tech stumbled on the front nine and is tied for 10th place after the first round of the NCAA East Regional golf tournament.
Tech’s team total of 285 was one over par on the par-71 Golf Club of Tennessee course, but 14 shots off the pace of Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons finished at 13-under-par 271 after three players broke par, led by Kyle Reifers’ 65, and another matched par. North Carolina was in second place at 10-under-par, but was one of six teams unable to finish their rounds after a two-hour storm delay in the afternoon.
Georgia, the top seed, shot 9-under-par 275 and is in third place, followed by Georgia State, which is 5-under but must complete its first round Saturday morning. Alabama was in fifth place at 280, Georgia Southern in sixth place at 281 and Tennessee in seventh at 282.
The Yellow Jackets, the second seed in this regional, went out in 5-over-par with Song’s even-par 36 leading the way. The senior from Orlando shot 3-under on the back side, and is tied for 11th place individually. Sophomore Kevin Larsen birdied three of his last five holes to finish at 1-over 72, while Nicholas Thompson also posted a 72, and Roberto Castro came in at 73.
Tech played the back nine four shots under par collectively, six under on the last five holes, and will start on that side Friday morning at 7:12 a.m.
“The two nines are significantly different,” said head coach Bruce Heppler. “There are some big numbers [on the front nine], and we made some. We’ve been waiting 30 days for this, and they were probably a little jumpy. We started on the more difficult side. You just settle down and play, and we made some birdies eventually. Hopefully we’ll come back and do the same thing in the morning.
“You want to play better, but I think we dodged a bullet with the way we finished. We played the last eight holes in five under. We’re in a much better place, and they’re probably in a much better frame of mind. If we start to play well, then we’ll be fine, and hopefully that’s what we started to do in the last six holes today.”
Thunderstorms moved into the Nashville area and halted the first round at 3:18 p.m. Central time with 15 teams still on the course. Play resumed at 5:10 p.m. and all but six teams were able to complete their rounds.
The NCAA East Regional is a 54-hole event in which the top 10 finishers after Saturday’s final round advance to the NCAA Division I Championship, June 1-4 in Owings Mills, Md.
NCAA EAST REGIONAL GOLFGolf Club of Tennessee, Kingston Springs, Tenn.First-round Results
GEORGIA TECH SCORES Chan Song (T11) 68 (-3) Kevin Larsen (T54) 72 (+1) Nicholas Thompson (T54) 72 (+1) Roberto Castro (T66) 73 (+2) Mike Barbosa (T114) 77 (+6)
Complete results at: http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=565
