The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
NCAA Championships
UAB Concludes First Round At NCAA Championships
5/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
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BRADENTON, Fla. -- Senior Paul Dunne shot even par to highlight the first day as the UAB men's golf team is in 28th place at the 2015 NCAA Championships. The Blazers shot a 20-over at The Concession Golf Club in the opening round.
"It was a tough for us, the golf course was really difficult," head coach Alan Murray said. "It is a tough golf course. I have felt worse shooting a better score than we did today so if we can come out and play well tomorrow we will jump up the leaderboard. These guys are good players so they are capable of having a good round tomorrow."
The course took its toll on most of the field today with just one team under par. UAB shot a 308 (+20) on the first 18 holes and is 18 strokes behind leader Illinois (-2). Georgia is second at even par with the remainder of the 30-team field over par.
Dunne made back-to-back birdies in the final two holes of the round to get back to even and finish with a 72. After going two-over on the first nine holes, he sank an eagle on hole three to be even, then negated two bogeys with the birdies on eight and nine. He is tied for 24th individually.
"Paul had a great finish," Murray remarked. "He said he was struggling so to shoot even par and be struggling is really impressive. He finished birdie, birdie. He made a great up-and-down on his 16th hole, which was big for us."
Freshman Taylor Eyster had a solid round going at 2-over until an unfortunate turn on the final hole. Eyster finished with a 6-over 78 for the day. He picked up birdies on the third, fourth, 13th and 18th holes.
Junior Martin Rohwer also shot a 78 (+6) in the opening round. Rohwer opened the day with a birdie on hole 10, then added two more birdies in the round. Freshman Lee Hodges shot an 80 (+8) to be tied for 133rd and junior Will Cannon is tied for 147th with an 82 (+10) on Friday.
UAB will be back on the course with the early round tomorrow. The Blazers tee off beginning at 8:40 a.m. ET/7:40 a.m. CT from the first tee. Live scoring is available on Golfstat.com.
For the latest news on Blazer sports, follow the UAB Athletics Twitter account: @UABathletics. For men's golf news, follow @UAB_MensGolf.
