Team Results
Individual Results
Gainesville, Fla. - The Georgia State men's golf team opened day one of the SunTrust Gator Invitational in 12th place after 36 holes of play. Freshman walk-on Tyler Gruca shot a pair of 73's and stands in a tie for 25th with 18 holes to play.
After opening the day with a 308, the Panthers rebounded in the afternoon, shooting 298 on the par 70, 6,701-yard course, just off campus of the University of Florida.
Gruca made a pair of birdies in each round to stand at 6-over par with 18 holes to play on Sunday morning. In a very tight field, he is just four strokes out of the top five.
"Today was a tough one on the course," commented head coach Joe Inman. "I was pleased that we lowered our score ten strokes in the afternoon, but we are going to need to play even better on Sunday if we are going to move up the leaderboard."
Freshman Victor Lavin opened the day with a 77, but rebounded in the afternoon to shoot 74 and stands in a tie for 44th.
Grant Cagle, one of three freshmen in the field for the Panthers, shot an opening round 75 that included an eagle on the par-5 7th hole. Cagle shot an afternoon 77 and is currently tied for 48th entering Sunday's final round.
Senior Alan Fowler struggled in the morning and shot 83, but rebounded in the afternoon, shooting 77 and stands in a tie for 70th.
Senior Brent Paul had a tough stretch of five holes in the morning that led to an opening round 88, before shooting the Panthers second best round of the afternoon, a 74, to stand in a tie for 73rd.
Host Florida, ranked third in the country, shot rounds of 281 and 282 to stand at 3-over par and lead by six strokes over No. 13 Auburn. The Tigers shot the best round of the day, 278, in the afternoon. No. 6 LSU stands in third at 14-over, while No. 29 UCF is in fourth, 15-over par. No. 44 UNF rounded out the top five at 19-over.
Florida's Andres Echavarria leads the field by one stroke after shooting 1-under on Saturday. Mississippi's Jonathan Randolph fired a pair of even par 70's to stand in second, followed by Florida's Phillip Choi and Florida State's Drew Kittleson, who are tied for third at 1-over. There is a six-way tie for fifth at 2-over par.
Florida has won the event seven years in a row. The list of now-PGA Tour stars that have won the event includes Paul Azinger, Brad Faxon, Jodie Mudd, David Toms, Chris DiMarco and Graeme McDowell.
The final round will begin on Sunday morning. The Panthers will go off of the tenth tee beginning at 8:30 a.m. Live stats will be available at Golfstat.com.
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