UW Golfers Ninth After NCAA First Round

Tuesday, June 1

Honors Course -- Ootewah, Tenn

9:30 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

June 01, 2010 | Men's Golf

By: Washington Athletics

June 1, 2010

Photo Gallery
Post-Round Interviews: Matt Thurmond | Charlie Hughes
• Round 1 Results | Live Scoring | Round 2 Tee Times

OOLTEWAH, Tenn. -- The Husky men's golf team, who came into the NCAA Men's Golf Championships with high expectations, finds itself ninth out of 30 teams after the first round at The Honors Course. Washington, the tournament's No. 4 seed, shot a combined 1-over 289 on Tuesday in stifling, muggy conditions at the par-72 course outside of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Washington suffered through a bad stretch towards the end of its round, but it didn't completely ruin the day for the Dawgs. After 14 holes, the Huskies were a combined 2-under, but a logjam on No. 15 caused golfers to sit and wait their turns and the UW was never really able to regain its momentum. Despite the unstellar beginning to the eighth NCAA Championship in Matt Thurmond's nine years as coach, he is unfazed by the team's slow start.

"We were kind of hoping that we'd be up by 20 shots after the first day, but we didn't get that," joked Thurmond.

"It wasn't a bad round. In the first round you just want to make sure you stay in it and we did that. We didn't play our best, but we're still right there."

The top eight teams after 54 holes advance to match play on Friday. Washington is just six strokes behind the leaders -- Oklahoma State and Florida State, which both shot 5-under 283's.

Individually, Richard Lee paced the Huskies with a 2-under 70. The NCAA West Regional champ converted four birdies on the day and is tied for 13th out of 156 golfers.

"Overall, I had a pretty solid round. I didn't hit it great but I made some good up-and-downs and I took advantage of when I had chances for birdie," said Lee. "I didn't have any big mistakes, which was nice."

Freshman Chris Williams was the Huskies next highest finisher at 36th. The Co-Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and NCAA West Regional runner up was even on the day, with four birdies and four bogeys.

Recent Ben Hogan Award winner Nick Taylor, who struggled with the putter at the NCAA West Regionals, started solid with a birdie putt from 15-feet out on No. 1. Unfortunately, he followed that up with a miss on No. 2 from less than five feet out that would have put him two under.

Taylor would only birdie one more hole during his round and had three bogeys on the back nine -- including consecutive blemishes on No. 17 and No. 18 to close his day. He ended up +1 and is tied for 52nd.

Charlie Hughes is tied for 65th at 2-over and Darren Wallace, who was third at the NCAA West Regional, is tied for 90th at +3.

Arizona State's Jesper Kennegard and Augusta State's Henrik Norlander lead the pack after first round scores of 4-under 68.

The Huskies will get after it bright and early on Wednesday, teeing off at 7:20 a.m. ET (4:20 a.m. PT).