CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Junior All-American John Peterson set the pace for the No. 28-seeded LSU men’s golf team in Tuesday’s first round of the 2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships as he fired a team-low 1-over par 73 at The Honors Course to kick off this year’s event.
With Peterson leading the way, the Tigers wrapped up the day in 29th place overall after posting a score of 15-over 303 in their first appearance at the NCAA Championships since 1997.
A junior from Fort Worth, Texas, Peterson was LSU’s top finisher in the opening round of the tournament as he ended the afternoon in a tie for 52nd place on the leaderboard with his round of 1-over 73.
Tuesday marked the first of three rounds of medal play that is set to conclude on Thursday. After 54 holes of medal play, the individual NCAA champion will be crowned and the top eight teams finishing in the final standings will be seeded according to finish and earn a spot in the single-elimination match play tournament beginning Friday that will crown this year’s national champion.
The No. 3-seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys and the No. 10-seeded Florida State Seminoles matched each other with rounds of 5-under par 283 in the opening round to jump out to an early lead in the stroke play competition. No. 1 seed Oregon follows one stroke back in third place in the team race at 4-under par 284, while No. 7 seed Texas A&M follows two strokes back in fourth place at 3-under 285.
Rounding out the top eight teams following the first round are Arizona State and Clemson in a tie for fifth place at 2-under 286 and August State and Florida in a tie for seventh place at 1-under 287.
Peterson enjoyed a fast start at 1-under par as he sandwiched a pair of birdies on the par-four first and par-three third holes around a bogey on the par-five second hole. He then made the turn at 1-under par for the round following a bogey at the par-four fifth and a birdie at the par-three eighth holes. After making a pair of bogeys on No. 15 and No. 17 on the back nine, Peterson wrapped up the day with a score of 1-over 73.
Fellow junior Andrew Loupe posted a 3-over 75 on Tuesday to finish the first round in a tie for 90th place, while junior Clayton Rotz carded a 5-over 77 to tie for 119th place and sophomores Austin Gutgsell and Sang Yi recorded matching rounds of 6-over 78 to finish the day in a tie for 129th place.
The Tigers are paired with Baylor and Georgia Southern in Wednesday’s second round and will start from the back nine with tee times beginning at 12:47 p.m. CDT.
The NCAA will provide a live webcast of the championships during the second and third rounds of stroke play, which can be found online at www.NCAA.com. Live scoring from each round of stroke play will be provided by Golfstat and can be found by logging on to www.golfstat.com.
2010 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS – FIRST ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 288)
T1. Oklahoma State 283 -5; T1. Florida State 283 -5; 3. Oregon 284 -4; 4. Texas A&M 285 -3; T5. Arizona State 286 -2; T5. Clemson 286 -2; T7. Florida 287 -1; T7. Augusta State 287 -1; 9. Washington 289 +1; T10. Texas 290 +2; T10. Georgia Tech 290 +2; T12. Stanford 292 +4; T12. Kent State 292 +4; T12. North Florida 292 +4; 15. California 293 +5; T16. Baylor 294 +6; T16. UNLV 294 +6; T16. San Diego 294 +6; T16. UCLA 294 +6; T20. Southern California 295 +7; T20. Oregon State 295 +7; 22. Duke 296 +8; T23. Georgia Southern 297 +9; T23. Tennessee 297 +9; 25. Virginia 300 +12; 26. Penn State 301 +13; T27. Texas Tech 302 +14; T27. TCU 302 +14; 29. LSU 303 +15; 30. Illinois 304 +16.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 72)
T1. Jesper Kennegard, Arizona State, 68 -4; T1. Henrik Norlander, Augusta State, 68 -4; T3. Seath Lauer, Florida State, 69 -3; T3. Luke Hopkins, Clemson, 69 -3; T3. Pontus Widegren, UCLA, 69 -3; T3. Phillip Choi, Florida, 69 -3; T3. Alex Ching, San Diego, 69 -3; T3. Wes Roach, Duke, 69 -3; T3. Ryan O’Rear, Baylor, 69 -3; T3. Eugene Wong, Oregon, 69 -3; T3. Peter Uihlein, Oklahoma State, 69 -3; T3. Lance Lopez, Texas, 69 -3.
LSU SCORES
T52. John Peterson, 73 +1
T90. Andrew Loupe, 75 +3
T119. Clayton Rotz, 77 +5
T129. Austin Gutgsell, 78 +6
T129. Sang Yi, 78 +6