May 30, 2007
Williamsburg, Va. –
Cameron Tringale shot a 3-under-par 67 Wednesday and is tied for third, but Georgia Tech was unable to overcome a poor start to the round and stands in a tie for 20th after the first day of the NCAA Division I Golf Championship.
Tringale, a sophomore from Laguna Niguel, Calif., birdied three holes with no bogeys on his incoming nine Wednesday on the 6,803-yard, par-70 Gold Course. It was his sixth sub-par round in the last seven dating back to the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship in April, and placed the all-conference performer in a tie with Bronson LaCassie of Minnesota and Matt Savage of Florida State, three shots back of Stanford’s Rob Grube (64).
Meanwhile, freshman Chesson Hadley posted a 72, Roberto Castro a 74 and Kevin Larsen a 75 to count for the Yellow Jackets, whose 8-under-par 288 is 13 shots off the pace set by Stanford.
The Cardinal’s 5-under-par score of 275 is three shots ahead of Florida, Minnesota and Texas, all in the clubhouse at 2-under-par 278. Coastal Carolina and Charlotte are in a tie for fifth at 1-under 279. All the other teams shot par or higher Wednesday, including top-ranked Georgia, which was in eighth place at 282.
Complete Results and Tee Times for Thursday
“Other than the one team (Stanford) that’s run away from everybody (we’re not that far back),” said Tech head coach Bruce Heppler. “We got it back to seven (over par), and if we had played nine a little bit better, then we’re a little bit closer. We didn’t get any birdies there, and it’s a wedge hole. We were 11 and finished at eight, so we finished in the right direction.”
Tech, which started on No. 10 Wednesday, played its front nine in 7-over-par, most of those coming in a rough start by Castro, who opened with a double-bogey at 10, birdied 11, then bogeyed 12 and 13. The senior from Alpharetta, Ga., who was named the 2007 Byron Nelson Award winner earlier in the day, steadied himself to par 13 of the remaining 14 holes.
Hadley, a freshman from Raleigh, N.C., played solid golf throughout the day save for a triple-bogey at No. 4.
By and large, the Yellow Jackets had trouble adjusting to the speed of the greens at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, which are significantly slower than the ones at their home course, The Golf Club of Georgia, which hosted the NCAA East Regional two weeks ago.
“I don’t know if I saw a birdie all day other than a couple of tap-ins on that par-5 (No. 6) that we two-putted for,” said Heppler. “We’ve just got to get the speed down (on the greens). They’re slow, they’re different. We’ve been on them three days now, so hopefully on the fourth we can make some putts.
“We play fast greens, and we play well on fast greens, and (these are) not fast. I told them, they’re not going to get any faster, and you’ve got to make an adjustment. You just have to figure out how to get enough of them to go in.”
Tech remains paired with Lamar and Arizona State for Thursday’s second round, teeing off at 7:47 a.m. from the first tee. A cut will be made to the top 15 teams after Friday’s third round.
“The thing we’ve got is we have three guys who are playing pretty well, though I know Roberto is disappointed,” said Heppler. “We have three guys who could all come out and shoot three or four under par. It’s not awful, but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
NCAA DIVISION I GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPGolden Horseshoe Golf Club, Williamsburg Va.First-Round Results
TOP 15 TEAMS Stanford 275 Florida 278 Minnesota 278 Texas 278 Coastal Carolina Charlotte 279 East Tennessee State 280 Georgia 282 Michigan State 283 UCLA 283 Florida State 283 Alabama 284 Tulsa 284 Vanderbilt 284 Tennessee 284
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS Rob Grube, Stanford, 64 Tim McKenney, Florida, 66 Cameron Tringale, Georgia Tech, 67 Bronson LaCassie, Minnesota, 67 Matt Savage, Florida State 67 Matt Bortis, Texas, 68 Andrew DiBitetto, Charlotte, 68 Tom Glissmeyer, Southern California, 68 Chris Kirk, Georgia, 68 Lucas Lee, UCLA, 68 Ben Pisani, Minnesota, 68 Zach Sucher, UAB, 68 Joel Sjoholm, Georgia State, 68 Dustin Johnson, Coastal Carolina, 68
GEORGIA TECH SCORES Cameron Tringale (T3), 67 Chesson Hadley (T66), 72 Roberto Castro (T107), 74 Kevin Larsen (T126), 75 Taylor Hall (T146), 78
