WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (May 30, 2007) -- The Georgia State men's golf team fired an opening round 286 and is tied for 17th at the 110th NCAA Men's Division I Golf Championship at The Golden Horseshoe Golf Club.

The 16th-ranked Panthers are tied for 17th-place with Arizona. Stanford has taken the early lead shooting a 5-under 275. Florida, Coastal Carolina, Minnesota and Texas are tied for second with 2-under rounds of 278. The four-day field with 30 teams will be cut to the top 15 teams after three days of play.

"We salvaged something at the end of the day," said head coach Matt Clark. "We got into a bit of a struggle in the first few holes. But it was nice to see us get back in the hunt in the end. The back nine of this course is a few shots harder than the front."

Junior Joel Sjoholm led the team with a 2-under 68. Sjoholm started out shaky with three bogeys in the first four holes but then turned it on his back nine with four birdies. Sjoholm is tied for seventh-place and is four shots behind leader Rob Grube of Stanford.

"Joel played really well being three over in the first four holes," Clark said. "He just missed a short putt at the end, but he did a great job of keeping the team in the game."

Sophomore Mark Haastrup finished with an even-par 70 with a round that included five birdies. Haastrup closed his round strong with a birdie on his last hole. Haastrup is tied for 29th-place.

Senior Ben Taylor opened with a 3-over 73 and is tied for 89th-place.

Senior Derek Oakey and freshman Tom Sherrard both opened with 5-over rounds of 75. Oakey and Sherrard are tied for 126th-place.

Georgia State's 17th place puts them just ahead of last year's defending champion, Oklahoma State, and cross town rival and ACC champion Georgia Tech.

The Panthers have an early morning tee time for Thursday's second round action. State will tee off at 8:44 a.m.

Golfstat will have live scoring of the event.

110th NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship
The Golden Horseshoe Gold Course
6,803 yards, Par 70

Individual Scores: