Northwestern Among Leaders After Gifford Collegiate First Round

11/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf

Nov. 8, 2010

Results (via Golfstat.com).

SAN MARTIN, Calif. -- Northwestern played near the top of the leaderboard all day Monday during the opening round of the Gifford Collegiate Championship at CordeValle in San Martin, Calif., settling into fourth place in the 12-team field following the opening 18 holes of play.

The Wildcats are four strokes behind the leaders, host and third-ranked UCLA, three shots behind second-place No. 16 Stanford and one shot behind third-place No. 25 Washington. NU leads fifth-place Oregon by four strokes.

Northwestern teed off the back nine Monday at the Gifford Collegiate, which consists of six-person lineups and five scorers for each team. Typical collegiate events feature five-person lineups with the top four scorers for each school counting toward the team total. The Wildcats' Monday team total was 16-over 371.

David Lipsky (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) leads a pair of Wildcats in the top-11 as individuals. The senior combined two bogeys with a birdie for a 1-over 36 on the back nine Monday. A bogey on No. 1 pushed him to two over before back-to-back birdies at Nos. 3 and 4 brought him back to even par. A bogey on his final hole of the day, however, left him in fifth place at 1-over 72.

Eric Chun (Ansung City, South Korea/International Christian School) opened his tournament with two bogeys in his first four holes, but consecutive birdies on Nos. 18 and 1 brought him back to even par. A disastrous stretch followed, however, with Chun playing the next five holes in 4-over par before recovering with birdies on Nos. 7 and 9 to finish at 2-over 73 on the day, good for 11th place as an individual.

Sophomore Nick Losole (Scottsdale, Ariz./Scottsdale Notre Dame) and freshman Brad Shigezawa (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou Academy) took very different routes to identical scores of 4-over 75 in the opening round, leaving the pair tied for 25th individually. Losole held basically steady through the first 11 holes of his day, making nine pars and two bogeys. A rough 3-over stretch from holes No. 3 to No. 6 left him at 5-over on the day before a birdie at the 358-yard par 4 eighth got him back to 4-over 75.

Shigezawa had a rough opening back nine, making one birdie but balancing that against two bogeys and two double-bogeys for a 5-over 40 going out. He recovered very well on the front side, carding three birdies against just two bogeys for a 1-under 35 and a combined 4-over 75 on the day.

One shot in back of Losole and Shigezawa are the duo of senior Josh Dupont (Poway, Calif./Cathedral Catholic) and freshman Jack Perry (Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara). Dupont carded a 5-over 76 with five bogies and 13 pars, limiting the damage with no bad holes but not making any birdies, either. Perry quickly shot up to 3-over par after five holes of play before erasing two back-nine birdies with a double-bogey at No. 17 for a 3-over 38 going out. He soon ballooned to 7-over after beginning the front side bogey-bogey-double. Perry recovered with birdies at Nos. 4 and 8 to go along with pars the rest of the way for his 5-over 76. Dupont and Perry are tied for 33rd in the individual standings.

Round two of the three-day Gifford Collegiate takes place tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 8. Live stats are available at Golfstat.com.

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