Macon, Ga. - Georgia State freshman Jonathan Grey shot his fourth straight round of par or better as the Panthers shot 301 to open play at the Brickyard Collegiate on Friday afternoon. Grey, who won his debut last month, shot 72 and stands tied for 19th at the Brickyard at Riverside Golf Club.
Georgia State stands tied for 13th in the 15 team field. The Panthers 15 birdies on the day were outdone by six double bogeys.
"We played well at times, but then made too many costly mistakes," commented head coach Joe Inman. "The one thing that I was glad to see is that we finished strong, playing the final hole 5-under. If we can keep that momentum going the rest of the weekend, we should be able to move back up the leaderboard."
Grey, who is averaging 69.5 strokes per round, got off to a solid start, shooting 34 on his opening nine, but stumbled with three bogeys on the back en route to the even par round.
Junior Kevin Lee, who subbed into the line-up this morning due to Damon Stephenson being under the weather, shot an opening round 76 to stand tied with sophomore Davin White for 53rd.
Lee made five birdies in his round, while White made a pair, shooting 38 on each side.
Junior Tyler Gruca stands tied for 58th following an opening round 77. After shooting 41 on his opening nine, Gruca finished strong with three birdies on his final five holes. Two other birdie putts just lipped out on him as he came home in 36.
Junior Grant Cagle rounded on the Panthers line-up and shot 79 on Friday to stand tied for 75th. He too finished strong, chipping in for eagle at the par 5 9th hole.
Stephenson, who was battling a fever when the round began, started strong with an opening nine 36 before stumbling on the back to shoot 83 and stand tied for 81st.
No. 4 Georgia opened the tournament with an impressive 8-under, 280 to take a three-stroke lead into the weekend. Standing in second is No. 42 North Florida at 5-under, followed by Princeton in third at 2-under. Kansas enters the weekend in fourth at even par, followed by No. 15 Georgia Tech in fifth at 1-over.
Georgia's Nicholas Reach opened play with a 4-under 68 to take a one-stroke lead over a group seven golfers. Tied for second at 3-under are: Georgia Tech's Michael Hines, Princeton's Quilan Prchal, UNF's Joey Petronio, Colorado State's Cameron Harrell, Kansas' Stan Gautier, College of Charleston's Alex Ellis and Virginia Tech's Trevor Cone.
Tee times begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Georgia State will begin at 9:40 a.m. off the 10th tee with the College of Charleston and Air Force. Live scoring can be found throughout the tournament at Golfstat.com.
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