Bucs currently 24^th, Shaw battling for individual spot in final round

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (May 30, 2008) - The ETSU men's golf team was prepared to do all it could to play Saturday during the NCAA Championships. However, this probably wasn't what the Bucs had in mind.

With lightning, high winds and heavy rains threatening the West Lafayette area during Friday's play in the third round of the NCAA Championships at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex's Kampen Course, officials were forced to postpone action until Saturday morning. Therefore, the Buccaneers will be on the course for an 8 a.m. shotgun start with several holes left to play in the third round.

The Bucs are facing slim odds to make the cut for the fourth round. With only a handful of holes left to play, ETSU is currently tied for 24^th and 11 strokes away from making the cut with a finish in the Top 15. On the bright side, senior Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) is tied for 17^th and has a chance to earn one of six spots in the finals reserved to the top six individual performers who are not members of one of the Top 15 teams.

"We're not mathematically out of it yet, but we're obviously not in a good position," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren. "I really thought we were playing well after the first nine holes today, but we didn't do what we needed to on the back. The weather was not good at all and it was really tough with the windy conditions. Our lack of depth really caught up with us here, but we're really hoping Gareth can get one of those six spots in the finals. We'll see how it goes tomorrow."

Shaw, who is currently at 7-over for the event and was 4-over for the day when play was called, began the round tied for 13^th and has dropped four spots. Meanwhile, sophomore Seamus Power (Waterford, Ireland) was also 4-over for the day at the time play was stopped, while freshman Rhys Enoch (Cornwall, England) and Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland) were 5-over and 6-over, respectively.

As for the rest of the field, UCLA leads by three strokes over USC, while the Bruins' Kevin Chappell is 6-under for the championships and holds a four-stroke advantage on the individual leaderboard.

Third round play will be completed early Saturday morning. Fans wishing to watch live scoring can do so at Golfstat.com or visit ETSUBucs.com for a complete wrap up following the day's action.