Spartans Shoot Record Round, Culler Tied for Lead at Frank Landrey
10/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Oct. 15, 2007
AMHERST, Va. - The USC Upstate men's golf team turned in a school record 279 in the second round of the Frank Landrey Invitational Monday afternoon and Baxter Culler finds himself tied for first heading into Tuesday's final round at the 7,059-yard, par-72 Poplar Grove Golf Club.
The 54-hole tournament began Monday with the teams playing 36 holes before closing out the tournament with 18 holes Tuesday. Upstate opened the tournament with a disappointing 306 score to enter the second round in ninth place. However, the Spartans got strong play from all five players in the second round to post the school record 279. It tops the opening round 280 shot in the first round of the season-opening Rutgers Invitational which the Spartans won. However, that round was on a par-71 course, while Monday's 279 was played on the par-72 course.
"At end of the first round, no one knew what the score was," said head coach Todd Lawton. "When they finally realized what the team shot in the first round, they were four or five holes into the second round and everyone was shocked. Before I could say anything, they all said that was not going to happen again. And it didn't. They went out there and all five made that second round happen."
Upstate's 279 was enough to move the team up six spots in the team standings to third place with a 585 total, just eight strokes back of first-place Radford (577). Richmond was second at 578 and was followed by Upstate, Virginia Commonwealth (587), James Madison (597), Longwood (602), Presbyterian (603), Gardner-Webb (607), Liberty (608), Youngstown State (610) and High point (629) in the 11-team event.
"(The second round) motivates me to keep playing well and I would think it would be the same for everyone else on the team," said Culler. "Considering we are playing in the same grouping with the leaders, I feel like we have a good shot to win the tournament. Eight shots in golf is not that much. It's basically two shots per player. We just need to come out and out pressure on them."
Culler turned in rounds of 70 and 69 to finish the day 5-under-par (139) for the tournament, tied with Radford's Nick Little atop the individual standings. Teammate Michael Lawrence is tied for fifth with a 143 total and was followed by Josh Gallman's 146 (T13th), Tyler Tucker's 157 (T50th) and Jamie Lightsey's 160 (T56th). Jeffery Horton is playing as an individual and is tied for 54th with a 159 total.
See attached results for detailed scores.
Day 1 Team Results
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Day 1 Individual ResultsDownload Free Acrobat Reader
