Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Gifford Intercollegiate
Northwestern Opens Strong at Gifford Collegiate
11/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
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Gifford Collegiate Championship CordeValle • San Martin, Calif. • NU's Place: 4th/10 teams Golfstat.com Live Scores • First Round Results  |
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SAN MARTIN, Calif. -- In a 10-team field featuring seven squads in the nation's top-40, Northwestern sits in fourth place following the opening day of competition Monday at The Gifford Collegiate at CordeValle.
The Gifford Collegiate is a 6 count 5 event that tests the depth of a team's roster much more severely than a typical collegiate 5 count 4 event. NU passed that test well in the opening round with a 5-over 360 that puts it one stroke behind third-place No. 4 Texas, five shots behind second-place No. 8 UCLA and seven shots behind the leaders No. 18 USC.
The Wildcats lead No. 16 Stanford by two strokes, No. 22 South Florida by three, No. 38 Colorado by seven and No. 34 SMU by 11.
"Good solid round by the team today," Director of Golf and Player Development Pat Goss tweeted. "Excited for tomorrow."
Teeing off from No. 10 on a beautiful day for golf with light winds, tough hole locations but easy rough, NU was toward the bottom of the leaderboard early on before storming back into the top four following 18 holes of play.
Freshman Dylan Wu (Medford, Ore./St. Mary's School) led that charge with an opening-round 2-under 69. Wu started slow with three bogeys in his first seven holes, but also nailed a difficult bunker shot for a birdie in that stretch that "Luke Donald would be impressed with," said head coach David Inglis.
Wu hit the turn with a birdie at the 555-yard par-5 18th, then carded birdies at Nos. 3, 4 and 6 to play his final 10 holes in 4-under par and place himself seventh in the field entering the second round, three shots out of the lead.
Senior Bennett Lavin (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield) was 2-over par making the turn Monday and remained on that number followed a birdie-bogey combo at Nos. 2 and 3. He made two late birdies at Nos. 6 and 8 to get all the way back to even par and post a 71 for the Wildcats, placing himself 14th in the field in the process.
Junior Josh Jamieson (St. Andrews, Scotland/High School of Dundee) is tied with Lavin in 14th place after signing for a 71 of his own. Jamieson had two birdies and one bogey during his first nine, then flipped that script including a bogey on his final hole to card his even-par total.
Senior Matthew Negri (El Cajon, Calif./Grossmont) made birdie on his very first hole, the 422-yard par-4 10th, but then carded bogey on five of his next six holes to turn at 4-over 39. He recovered on the front side with a pair of birdies against just one bogey to come home in 1-under par and end the opening round in 31st place at 3-over 74.
Freshman Charles Wang (Beijing, China/Sarasota Christian School) "didn't play great today, but hung in there to shoot 75," tweeted Goss. Wang opened with eight-straight pars but needed long par saves on Nos. 13 and 16 to keep that streak intact. After making the turn at 1-over, Wang had three bogeys on his second nine to end up 45th overall at 4-over 75.
"Love the attitude," Goss tweeted about Wang. "He'll get going tomorrow."
Senior Scott Smith (Pepper Pike, Ohio/University School) shot a 6-over 41 going out Monday and came home with a four-stroke improvement, leading to a 7-over 78. Smith is 62nd overall.
Competing as an individual, freshman Sam Triplett (Scottsdale, Ariz./Brophy Prep) was cruising along nicely when a birdie on No. 1 -- his 10th hole of the day -- put him at level par. He stayed on that number until a bogey-double bogey combination on Nos. 7 and 8 led to a 31st-place opening round total of 3-over 74.
The second round of the Gifford Collegiate at CordeValle gets underway at 10:30 a.m. CT/8:30 a.m. PT tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Northwestern -- 4th/10 • 360 (+5)
T7 -- Dylan Wu -- 69 (-2)
T14 -- Josh Jamieson -- 71 (E)
T14 -- Bennett Lavin -- 71 (E)
T31 -- Matthew Negri -- 74 (+3)
T31 - Sam Triplett -- 74 (+3)
T45 -- Charles Wang -- 75 (+4)
T62 -- Scott Smith -- 78 (+7)
Players in italics are competing as individuals
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