EL PASO, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler men's golf team overcame high winds and rain in round one of the RJGA South Central Shootout to post a 315 team total and put themselves in position at the heart of the leaderboard.
The bad weather on Monday afternoon in El Paso, Texas allowed for just 18 holes of competition at Butterfield Trail Golf Club, and will shorten the previously scheduled 54-hole event to just 36 holes. UT Tyler sits in a tie for seventh place in a 16-team field in which just eight shots separate the fourth from 12
th spots on the leaderboard.
Junior
Jackson Powers helped keep the Patriots in the heart of that jam-packed leaderboard with a round of 75, and sits in a tie for eighth place on the individual leaderboard. No team broke 300 on Monday in the brutal conditions, and the scoring average for the field sat at 80.90 for the day.
UT Permian Basin will hold the overnight lead after a first-round score of 302, and led a group of just three teams alongside DBU and Westminster that broke 310 for the day to round out the top three. The leaderboard from that point is tight as just eight strokes separate fourth place from 12
th place heading into tomorrow's final round.
Graduate student
Carson Whitton posted a 76 for the next lowest round of the day for UT Tyler and sits in a tie for 12
th place on the individual leaderboard. Junior
Seth Campbell sits in a tie for 34
th place after a first round 80 while
Carter Lewis and
Jackson Naeger both carded rounds of 84.
UT Tyler led the field with 56 pars in Monday's opening round and will need to clean up their scorecards during tomorrow's final round that presents the Patriots with an opportunity to collect critical in-region head-to-head victories over a host of foes. With the tournament shortened to just 36 holes and a jam-packed leaderboard, a great round tomorrow morning in what should be much better scoring conditions would go a long way in setting the team up for their championship spring semester.
Tomorrow's final round will get started with a 9:30 shotgun start.
