Louisville, No. 25 in the latest Golfstat rankings and coming off a solid fourth-place finish
earlier this week in the General Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C.,
jumped in front in Friday’s opening round of the Linger Longer Invitational at
Reynolds Lake Oconee’s The Landing Course in Greensboro, Ga.
With Jiri Zuska, a freshman from the Czech Republic,
grabbing the individual lead and Matthias Schmid, a sophomore from Germany,
tied for second, the Cardinals, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, carded a
10-under-par 278 over The Landing Course, which measures 6,991 yards and plays
to a par of 72.
No. 21 Liberty, which finished four shots ahead of
Louisville in third place in the General Hackler, continued its strong play with a
6-under 282 that left it tied for second place with No. 88 North Carolina Greensboro.
Southeastern Conference representative Georgia, ranked 15th,
and No. 53 Ohio State, out of the Big Ten, were tied for fourth place as each posted
a 3-under 285.
No. 113 Mercer was alone in sixth place at 2-under 286. No.
24 Alabama, last year’s SEC and NCAA Championship runnerup, and No. 115 Augusta
were tied for seventh at even-par 288.
No. 68 Penn State got off to a decent start, carding a
1-over 289 that left it alone in ninth place in the nine-team field. The Nittany
Lions were a solid fifth in their last outing at the Colleton River Collegiate
in Bluffton, S.C., but have dropped eight spots in the Golfstat rankings. A solid showing in the Linger Longer, which
continues with single rounds Saturday and Sunday, might bolster the Nittany
Lions’ ranking and, probably more importantly, their confidence.
Zuska grabbed the individual lead with a sizzling 7-under 65
with his teammate Schmid grabbing a share of second place with a 5-under 67 to the
lead way for Louisville.
A couple of Cardinals from Ireland put together decent
rounds to kick off the St. Patty’s Day weekend. Junior John Murphy carded a
1-under 71 to join the group tied for 20th. Devin Morley, also a
junior, posted a 3-over 75 and is among the group tied for 50th.
Also in that group tied for 50th place at 3-over 75 for
the Cardinals was Trevor Johnson, a junior from Brentwood, Tenn.
Sharing second place with Louisville’s Schmid at 5-under 67 was
Charlotte junior Marc Boucher, another Irishman.
UNC-Greensboro’s Bryce Hendrix, a senior from Greenville,
N.C., and Augusta’s Viktor Lindgren, a junior from Sweden, were tied for fourth
after each posted a 4-under 68.
Leading the way for Penn State was Alec Bard, a junior from
New Hartford, N.Y. who carded a 2-under 70 to join the group tied for 13th place. Senior JD Hughes, a Carlisle product and the winner of the 2017 Pennsylvania
Amateur at White Manor Country Club, matched par with a 72 and is among the
group tied for 25th place.
Ryan Dornes, the 2014 PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at
Manheim Township, posted a solid 1-over 73 and was in the group tied for 32nd place.
Charles Huntzinger, a senior from Duluth, Ga., was among the group tied for 41st
place at 2-over 74.
Rounding out the Penn State lineup was Ryan Davis, a junior
from Berkeley Heights, N.J. who carded a 5-over 77 to land among the group tied
for 66th place.
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