The University of Arkansas’ No. 14-seeded men’s golf team is tied for 14th place after shooting a 14-over 294 in Friday’s opening round of the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
No. 3 seed Vanderbilt held the team lead after opening with a 2-over 282 on Friday. The Commodores hold a three-stroke lead over No. 17 Auburn and No. 27 Oregon. Kansas (25) and Arizona (26) are a shot back with 6-over 286s. Top-seeded Oklahoma (271) is sixth.
Arkansas’ Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira and Segundo Pinto were tied for 16th in the individual standings after shooting 1-over 71s on the par-70, 7,289-yard Raptor Course layout.
Julia Perico was tied for 62nd after shooting a 4-over 74. Luke Long was tied for 131st place after shooting an 8-over 78. Alternate Wil Gibson opened with a 9-over 79.
“I thought we did a great job,” Arkansas Coach Brad McMakin said. “It was really tough this afternoon. The greens were really firm. I thought the guys got off to a slow start today, but the guys really hung in there.
“The two rounds that Mateo and Segundo played, those 71s, were fantastic. I thought it was a great team effort and now we’ve got to go take advantage of tomorrow.”
Fernandez de Oliveira had the Razorbacks’ only birdie on the front nine, a 3 on the 520-yard par-4 18th. It was one of only three birdies yielded by the monster hole in the opening round.
Kansas’ Harry Hillier and Auburn’s Brendan Valdes shared the opening round lead after shooting 2-under 68s. Tied for third with 1-under 69s were Liberty’s Kieran Vincent, Georgia Southern’s Mason Williams, Bo Jin of Oklahoma State and two golfers from Arizona, Chase Sienkiewicz and Chaz Aurilia.
Following Sunday’s third round, the field will be cut in half. After the fourth round, the individual medalist will be awarded and the field will be cut to eight teams and seeded for match play.
The Razorbacks have not made the match play stage of NCAA Championships since the first year of the format in 2009, when they were national runners up to Texas A&M.