CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico – In his first action of the 2015 spring season, junior standout Zach Wright carded a team-leading round of 1-over par 72 in Sunday’s opening round at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate as the No. 3-ranked LSU Tigers wrapped up the day in 13th place in the field with a team score of 8-over par 292 at Querencia Golf Club.
Wright’s opening round of 1-over 72 on Sunday tied him for 23rd place on the leaderboard to finish as the top Tiger on the day while making his first tournament appearance of the spring season.
Senior Myles Lewis and sophomore Brandon Pierce added matching rounds of 2-over par 73 toward LSU’s team total for the day to tie one another for 36th place with two rounds still to play. Senior Stewart Jolly posted a 3-over par 74 to round out the team’s counting scores on the afternoon as the All-American finished the day tied for 47th place on the individual leaderboard.
Rounding out the Tigers’ lineup was sophomore Eric Ricard, who opened the Querencia Cabo Collegiate with a round of 4-over 75 to finish Sunday’s action in a tie for 55th place overall heading into the second round.
Led by matching scores of 4-under 67 by Hank Lebioda and Rowin Caron and a solid round of 2-under 69 by Josh Lee, the No. 2-ranked Florida State Seminoles jumped out to a one-shot lead over the 15th-ranked South Florida Bulls in the team race with a first-round score of 9-under par 275 on the afternoon. Lebioda and Caron ended the round in a four-way tie for second place on the leaderboard with Stanford’s Viraat Badhwar and Lamar’s Louis Bemberg to head into Monday’s second round just three shots off the pace.
South Florida’s Rigel Fernandes outclassed the field in Sunday’s opener as he fired a leading 7-under par 64 while carding six birdies and one eagle to take the early lead in the race for medalist honors.
Following Florida State and South Florida in the team race are No. 10-ranked Stanford and No. 22-ranked Washington in a tie for third place at 2-under 282 and No. 5-ranked Wake Forest and No. 30-ranked Houston in a tie for fifth place at 1-over 285 to round out the top five teams in the 14-team field. LSU’s opening score of 8-over 292 ended the day in 13th place in the overall team standings.
The Tigers are paired with Arkansas and Rice in Monday’s second round as they will tee off from holes Nos. 15-18 with a shotgun start scheduled for 10 a.m. CT. Golfstat will feature live scoring during the second round of this year’s Querencia Cabo Collegiate as fan can follow the Tigers in action at http://www.golfstat.com.
QUERENCIA CABO COLLEGIATE – FIRST ROUND RESULTS
TEAM SCORES (Par 284)
1. Florida State 275 -9; 2. South Florida 276 -8; T3. Stanford 282 -2; T3. Washington 282 -2; T5. Wake Forest 285 +1; T5. Houston 285 +1; 7. Lamar 286 +2; T8. Vanderbilt 287 +3; T8. Ole Miss 287 +3; 10. Baylor 288 +4; 11. Kentucky 290 +6; 12. Arkansas 291 +7; 13. LSU 292 +8; 14. Rice 300 +16.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (Par 71)
1. Rigel Fernandes, South Florida, 64 -7; T2. Hank Lebioda, Florida State, 67 -4; T2. Rowin Caron, Florida State, 67 -4; T2. Viraat Badhwar, Stanford, 67 -4; T2. Louis Bemberg, Lamar, 67 -4; 6. Cheng-Tsung Pan, Washington, 68 -3; T7. Kyle Jones, Baylor, 69 -2; T7. Roman Robledo, Houston, 69 -2; T7. Chase Koepka, South Florida, 69 -2; T7. Corey Pereira, Washington, 69 -2; T7. Danny Guise, Wake Forest, 69 -2; T7. Josh Lee, Florida State, 69 -2.
LSU SCORES
T23. Zach Wright, 72 +1
T36. Myles Lewis, 73 +2
T36. Brandon Pierce, 73 +2
T47. Stewart Jolly, 74 +3
T55. Eric Ricard, 75 +4