Augusta, Ga. -Led by sophomore Tyler Gruca's 2-under par total, Georgia State opened the 34th annual Insperity Augusta State Invitational in a tie for 14th after the first two rounds at Forest Hills Country Club on Saturday. The Panthers tied with Clemson, the 14th ranked team in the country.
After 36 holes, Gruca stands tied for 20th, shooting rounds of 70 and 72 on Saturday. He made five birdies in his opening round and followed it with three in the afternoon. The start of the day was delayed one-hour due to storms in the area. The teams played lift, clean and place all 36 holes.
The Panthers shot an opening round 4-over 292 and followed it with a 2-over 290, among the squad's best rounds of the year. The field features eight teams in the top 50 in the country and nine of the top 50 and 13 of the top 100 individuals in the nation.
"If you just look at the standings, you might thing we were disappointed with our play," commented head coach Joe Inman. "Although we wanted to come here and win, we are playing very good golf, it just so happens that it is coming against the very best in the nation.
"We are tied with the 14th best team in the country and just strokes back of four top 50 teams, which is where we are striving to be. We made a few mistakes on the course today, but if we correct those on Sunday, we should be able to move up the leaderboard."
Freshman Davin White followed an opening round 74 with a 1-under 71 in the afternoon to stand tied for 39th. White's afternoon round featured five birdies.
Senior Clemens Dvorak shot rounds of 73 and 74 to stand tied for 52nd. His second round opened with an eagle-three, but he was forced to battle back after a pair of double bogeys on two of his next three holes.
Freshman Damon Stephenson opened with a round of 75, before shooting an afternoon 73 to stand tied for 59th. His second round featured four birdies.
Sophomore Grant Cagle rounded out the Panthers line-up with rounds of 75 and 76 to stand tied for 68th entering Sunday's final round.
Top-ranked Texas and No. 48 Augusta State share the 36-hole lead after each shot 17-under thru the first two rounds. No. 44 Illinois stands third at 12-under, after shooting a tournament low 15-under 273 on Saturday afternoon. No. 37 TCU stands fourth at 10-under, followed by Tennessee at 8-under.
TCU's Julien Brun, ranked 18th in the country, leads with 18 holes to play following rounds of 68 and 65 to stand at 11-under par. Augusta State's Taylor Floyd is just one stroke back at 10-under, followed by Texas' Dylan Fritteli, the second-ranked golfer in the country who is at 9-under. Illinois' Thomas Pieters stands fourth at 6-under, followed by a quartet of golfers tied for fifth at 5-under.
Sunday's third and final round slated for tee times beginning at 8:30 a.m., off No. 1 and No. 10. Georgia State will go off the tenth tee with USC Aiken, Clemson and Houston.
As the annual players' gift, the teams will spend Monday at Augusta National for the first practice round of The Masters.
Fans can log on to Golfstat.com to follow live scoring during all three rounds of the event.
This will mark the Panthers final regular season event and give GSU nearly four weeks to prepare for the CAA Championship, April 27-29 at Wilmington (Del.) Country Club. The winner of the conference championship receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Regionals.
www.GeorgiaStateSports.com
