University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Invitational at the Ocean Course
Spartans Complete First Round at Invitational at Ocean Course
9/9/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Kiawah Island, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's golf team opened the 2012-13 season shooting a 325 in the first round of the Invitational at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, S.C. Sunday afternoon.
Upstate is one of 15 teams competing in the tournament with eight teams ranked in the Top 100 in the Golfstat national rankings. The Spartans are 15th in the tournament after the first round of the 54-hole event.
Florida, ranked 18th in the country and the defending champion of the tournament, opened with a 289 to take the first round lead. Houston carded a 293 and was followed by College of Charleston (299), UAB (302), South Florida (303), Davidson (306), Stephen F. Austin (307), Georgia Southern (307), USC Aiken (307), Texas State (308), Texas-Arlington (310), Akron (312), St. John's (317), Mercer (319) and Upstate (325).
"The course is one of the best courses in the world and is tough. The conditions were windy, but very playable today. Nobody in our lineup played anything better than marginally well. The good things we had going were compromised by missed shots," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton.
The tournament has a unique format with six players playing and the four top scores counting toward the team score. The Ocean Course was the site of the most recent PGA Championship completed just a few weeks ago. It was also the site of the 1992 Ryder Cup and 2007 Senior PGA Championship.
Four of Upstate's players began their rounds with some high-scoring holes and had to try to play catch-up the rest of the way. However, Brad Sill (Spartanburg, S.C.) and Ryan Cornfield (Dudley, England) started strong to keep the Spartans in the round.
Sill opened the tournament with nine-straight pars to go out in even-par 36. He struggled coming in, though, carding eight bogeys and finished with a team-best 80 on the day. Cornfield went out in 2-over and finished his first collegiate round with an 83.
Adam Goins (Gaffney, S.C.) birdied the 11th and 12th holes to highlight his round and tied for the second-best score for Upstate on the day, turning in an 81. Fellow Gaffney native Matthew Hopper also carded an 81 on the day. Brian Horton (Boiling Springs, S.C.) matched Cornfield's score with an 83 despite making birdie on No. 4 and No. 7. Will Graves (Rock Hill, S.C.) shot an 84.
"I thought we were a little overconfident in our abilities to recover from bad shots on one of the toughest courses in the world. When we didn't hit a good shot, we thought we could miraculously recover on the next shot and didn't respect very difficult shot. I like our players to have confidence, but I also want them to be committed on what is in front of them even if it means backing off of that confidence. I'm looking for the players to manage their abilities better tomorrow," said Lawton.
Houston's Curtis Reed opened the tournament with a 1-unbder 71 to take the lead after the first round. He leads by one stroke over three players at 72.
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