The University of Florida men’s golf team shot an opening round 288 (+4), to sit in a tie for second place overall at the 2012 NCAA Championships played at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. For the day, the Gators were led by junior Tyler McCumber (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) who shot a bogey-free 68 (-3) to sit in a tie for second place.
“It was a decent start for us,” said head coach Buddy Alexander. “We’ve been slow out of the gates all season and I thought we handled today pretty solidly and made some good adjustments after our practice round.”
“Tyler played a great round of golf today,” Alexander continued. “To not make any bogeys on a course like this is very impressive and shows how well he played today.”
McCumber started his day with six consecutive pars before breaking through with a birdie at the par-4 seventh. Two more pars at eight and nine saw McCumber go out in 34 (-1). To start his homeward half, McCumber made birdie on the par-4 10th. After a stretch of seven-consecutive pars, McCumber carded a birdie on the difficult, par-4, 18th to post his 17th round at or under par on the season.
After a tough opening nine, senior Michael Furci (Sayville, N.Y.) was able to rally to post a one-over. Furci, who had three bogeys on the front, was able to regroup coming in by making two birdies and seven pars to post his 72.
“Michael had a big back nine for us,” Alexander explained. “We were struggling there for a bit and he kept us in it with his play which was huge.”
Junior T.J. Vogel (Cooper City, Fla.) also finished his opening round with a 72 after an up-and-down day where he made a team-best four birdies which were countered by five bogeys.
Freshmen J.D. Tomlinson (Gainesville, Fla.) and Eric Banks (Truro, Canada) each posted rounds of 76 (+5) to round out the UF lineup.
“We’re going out in the afternoon tomorrow and we’ll probably face some wind and tougher conditions, but we need to be able to stay focused and play our game and hopefully put together a round that puts us in contention going into the final round,” Alexander said.
The Gators will return to the course tomorrow when they tee off beginning at 12:20 PST, 3:20 EST. Live scoring for the second round will be available through NCAA.com.
