Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Erin Hills Intercollegiate
Three #B1GCats in Top 11 After Erin Hills First Round
10/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
 |
||
 |
Erin Hills Intercollegiate Erin Hills Golf Course • Erin, Wis. • NU's Place: t-4th/11 teams Golfstat.com Live Scores • First Round Results  |
|
ERIN, Wis. -- With three Wildcats in the top 11 following the opening round Sunday at the Erin Hills Intercollegiate hosted by Marquette, Northwestern is in a fourth-place tie among the 11-team field at the future site of the U.S. Open.
With the weather chilly and windy following the near-record front that blasted through the Midwest late last week, conditions at the exposed expanse of Erin Hills were exceptionally difficult Sunday. NU carded a 14-over 302 to sit tied with Wisconsin after 18 holes of play, one shot behind third-place SMU and three strokes behind second-place Marquette. UCLA leads the tournament at 6-over par.
Northwestern -- playing a lineup of one senior, a junior and three freshmen -- found itself near the bottom of the leaderboard due to a very difficult opening stretch in which the five-man lineup combined to play the first four holes in 16-over par.
NU's team lineup split early, with senior Bennett Lavin (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield), junior Josh Jamieson (St. Andrews, Scotland/High School of Dundee) and freshman Dylan Wu (Medford, Ore./St. Mary's School) hanging around the top of the leaderboard while the Wildcats' two other freshmen, Sam Triplett (Scottsdale, Ariz./Brophy Prep) and Charles Wang (Beijing, China/Sarasota Christian School), struggled out of the gate in their first-collegiate starts as members of the team lineup.
"Two freshmen turn in 8 and 9 over," tweeted Northwestern Director of Golf and Player Development Pat Goss. "(The) only way to learn to play a place like Erin Hills on a tough day is to do it and then go get better. One of Charles or Sam are going to count so need to hang in there."
With the Wildcats in search of that fourth counting score, Triplett improved seven strokes from his front nine to his back. That recovery, coupled with NU's triumvirate among the top-11 individuals, helped NU rise from ninth place midway through the round to a fourth-place tie at its conclusion.
Jamieson led Northwestern with a stellar even-par 72 in the conditions to finish the first day in a three-way tie for third place, two strokes behind the individual leader. He ground out eight pars and a bogey on the front nine, then came back to card three birdies on the back side against just a pair of bogeys, coming home in 1-under 35 to post his 72.
Lavin is two strokes behind Jamieson in eighth place after a 2-over 74 Sunday. He turned in 3-over 39 before also carding a 1-under 35 coming home to reach a top-10 position individually. On his back nine, Lavin birdied the 409-yard par-4 11th hole, then made seven pars the rest of the way.
Wu is one shot behind Lavin after carding an 11th-place 3-over 75. He got off to a rough start, making three bogeys in his first four holes. The par during that stretch came when he got up-and-down from 140 yards after a tough lie in the fairway.
"Have to make some of those ugly pars today," tweeted Goss about the play.
Using his talent to control what could have turned into a tough round for the freshman, Wu played the rest of the way in even-par, including a birdie at the 675-yard par-5 finishing hole, to card his 75.
Triplett's start was a triple bogey, bogey, double bogey nightmare that found him 6-over after three holes. He would turn in 8-over 44 and reach 9-over through 10 holes. The freshman displayed the fight long instilled in NU golfers, however, bouncing back for back-to-back birdies at Nos. 13 and 14 before eventually coming home in 1-over 37, a seven-stroke improvement over his opening nine. Triplett is in 51st place at 9-over 81.
Wang's day never got going with just four pars and one birdie on his card en route to a 14-over 86. He did birdie the final hole, however, to give himself momentum entering Monday's second round.
That second round begins at 8:30 a.m. CT tomorrow, Monday, Oct. 6.
Northwestern - T-4th/11 • 302 (+14)
T3 - Josh Jamieson -- 72 (E)
T8 - Bennett Lavin -- 74 (+2)
T11 - Dylan Wu -- 75 (+3)
T51 - Sam Triplett -- 81 (+9)
T64 - Charles Wang -- 86 (+14)
••••••
Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook, subscribe to the NU Sports Express e-newsletter and sign up to receive promotional text alerts for the latest news, schedule updates and video and to interact with NU. For more information on following specific Northwestern teams online, visit our Social Media page!
