Saturday, May 27, 2017

First-Round Play Suspended at 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships

(SUGAR GROVE, Ill.) - Afternoon weather delays forced the suspension of Friday’s first-round at the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships at Rich Harvest Farms. The two delays, totaling three hours and one minute, resulted in half the field being unable to complete their opening round.

Auburn posted the low round of the day among morning wave of 15 teams, recording a team total of six-under par 282.

“We got off to a really great start,” said Auburn head coach Nick Clinard. “We started on 10 and did really well on 10 and 11. Eleven was a pretty easy par five. We hung in there, played 18 well and then we struggled a little bit coming down the stretch. We dropped some shots on seven and eight; we had four bogies on eight and we played seven two-over. We could have had a really, really good day, but it was a good start to the week. It's a long week so we will take it."

Playing in the first pairing of the morning off the 10th tee, Auburn was led by Jacob Solomon’s five-under 67, the second-best round of the morning, and a three-under 69 from Matt Gilchrest. Solomon carded seven birdies in his opening 18 holes while Gilchrest posted a trio of birdies as well as an eagle on the par-five 18th.

Ole Miss and Alabama are tied for the second-best round of the morning as the Rebels and Crimson Tide each posted a one-under par 287.

Braden Thornberry of Ole Miss is the leader in the clubhouse after carding a six-under 66. Thornberry, who recorded six birdies and no bogies in his round, tied the course collegiate record set by Zach Seabolt of Winthrop in the first round of the 2014 Northern Intercollegiate and Thomas Detry of Illinois in the second round of the 2015 Northern Intercollegiate.

“I really just never got in trouble, never really was close to making any bogeys, was sitting in the fairways and when I did miss (I) was lucky enough to get a few good lies and go from there,” said Thornberry. “(I) kept it in front of me and made some putts, really try to make it an easy day.”

Among the afternoon wave, Vanderbilt is eight-under par with all players through a minimum of 15 holes. Four players that started in the afternoon are currently tied at four-under; Vanderbilt’s Matthias Schwab and Southern California’s Justin Suh are both four-under through 15 while Sam Burns of LSU and Michael Feagles of Illinois are four-under through 14.

First-round play will resume on Saturday morning, May 27, at 6:30 a.m. CT, followed by second-round play beginning at 7:15 a.m.

First-round scores and second-round pairings are attached. Follow team and individual results at www.ncaa.com/2017-di-mens-golf-leaderboard and for tournament central news, www.niuhuskies.com.

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