Wednesday, May 30, 2007

         WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (May 30, 2007) - The quest for a national championship got off to a good start for the 14^th-ranked ETSU mens' golf team Wednesday at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, as the Buccaneers posted a team score of even par 280 to finish seventh in the 30-team field following first round play in the NCAA Championships.

            The Bucs are just five strokes off the pace set by first round leader Stanford, which carded a 275 to finish two strokes better than second place Coastal Carolina. Meanwhile, Florida, Minnesota and Texas are all tied for third at 2-under. Individually, the Bucs were led by a pair of 1-under 69s from senior Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) and junior Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland), both of whom are tied for 15^th and just five strokes back of individual leader Rod Grube of Stanford.

            "Even par is a pretty good start," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren, whose team will tee off at 8:35 a.m. in Thursday's second round. "We were struggling for a while and finished strong. Seamus was 4-over at one point but birdied four of his last five holes to finish even. Rhys was solid all day, Gareth was around par and Cian did a nice job for us. We're five back and not displeased at all with our start, but we have a really early day tomorrow."

            Along with Davies and Shaw, the Bucs got a solid even-par 70 effort from freshman Seamus Power (Waterford, Ireland), while junior Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland) finished tied for 66^th at 2-over. Sophomore Jordan Findlay (Fraserburgh, Scotland) struggled and finished at 5-over to tie for 126^th.

            Second and third round play will follow over the next two days, with the Bucs battling to gain at least a Top15 spot to make the cut and participate in Saturday's fourth and final round. Fans can watch live scoring and keep up with Golfweek's NCAA Championship coverage by visiting www.golfstat.com.

            Fans can also get a complete wrap up of the day's play by clicking on ETSUBucs.com.