Buies Creek, N.C. ? The Stetson men's golf team found birdies hard to come by in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships on Monday, ending the day at 12 over par collectively and in 10th place in the 11-team field at Keith Hills Country Club. Junior Dave McAndrew (Barrington, R.I.) shot one over par 73 to lead the Hatter contingent; he is tied for 21st place overall.
Stetson was the only team in the field to not have at least one golfer shoot par or better as senior Tommy Parker (Palm Beach, Fla.) came closest to McAndrew with a 74 and is tied for 26th place. Sophomore Gabe Costa (Tequesta, Fla.) shot four over par 76 to stand in a 34th place tie and classmate Michael Stewart (New Smyrna Beach, Fla.) carded a 77 to tie for 38th. Freshman Sam Ryder (Longwood, Fla.) shot 78 and is tied for 44th.
Host Campbell got off to a blazing start, carding a nine under par 279 total to open up a nine-stroke lead over defending A-Sun champion North Florida. Kennesaw State and Belmont are tied for third at one over par with Florida Gulf Coast and Jacksonville tied for fifth at +2. USC Upstate (+6), ETSU (+7) and Mercer (+11) are also ahead of the Hatters with Lipscomb bringing up the rear at +21.
Belmont's Scott O'Brien shot five under par 67 to take a two-stroke lead in the medalist race over Vaita Guillaume (Campbell), Isak Pettersen (Campbell), Michael Tulacz (Kennesaw State), Joshua Kinsey (Jacksonville) and Josh Gallman (USC Upstate).
Second round play begins tomorrow at 8 a.m. with the Hatters and Lipscomb starting off the 10th tee. Live scoring is available for the tournament at the following link: http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/leaderboards/team/static/team_players_1473.html
