What you need to know:
* Georgia State shot rounds of 293 and 294 on the first day of the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Saturday to stand in a tie for eighth with Georgia Southern.
* Junior J.J. Grey led the Panthers on Saturday with rounds of 75 and 70 to stand at 5-over par and tied for 20th.
* Georgia State will play the final round of the 54-hole event on Sunday entering play just four strokes behind No. 6 Vanderbilt.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Georgia State men's golf team opened the spring season on Saturday at the SunTrust Gator Invitational, shooting rounds of 293 and 294, to stand in a tie for eighth-place entering the final round of play on Sunday.
Junior J.J. Grey led the Panthers with rounds of 75 and 70 to stand in a tie for 20th at 5-over par with 18 holes to play.
Georgia State is making its 12th appearance at Florida's tournament since 1999 and will look for a tournament-best finish on Sunday.
“We play okay today,” head coach Joe Inman said. “We did a lot of good things, but we also stumbled a little at times. We are just a few strokes out of fifth-place and we knew that if we could come down here and get a top-five team finish, it would be a good start to the spring with this very good field. I expect we will play well tomorrow to continue to move up the leaderboard.”
Grey's second round included three birdies as he shot the Panthers lowest round of the day.
Sophomore Nathan Mallonee shot rounds of 72 and 74 and stands at 6-over par and tied for 23rd entering the final round. He made five birdies over the course of 36 holes Saturday.
Senior Damon Stephenson and Davin White are tied for 38th following rounds of 73 and 76. The duo is each 9-over par entering the final round.
Freshman Alexander Herrmann shot rounds of 80 and 74 and stands tied for 65th at 14-over following 36 holes.
No. 23 South Florida was the lone team to break par for 36 holes, shooting 275 and 283, 2-under, on Saturday to build a two-stroke lead over Arkansas. No. 3 Florida State stands third at 3-over, followed by host Florida in fourth at 7-over. No. 6 Vanderbilt rounded out the top five at 23-over.
In a three-way tie at the top of the individual leaderboard are Arkansas' Kolton Crawford, UAB's Martin Rohwer and Florida's J.D. Tomlinson, all at 3-under par. South Florida's Chase Koepka and Claudio Correa, along with Florida State's Rowin Caron are tied for fourth at 2-under.
Live scoring of the final round can be found at Golfstat.com. Teams will tee off the No. 1 and No. 10 tees beginning at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Following the event, Georgia State will return to the course in just over a week, traveling to California for the Jones Sports Invitational hosted by Pepperdine in Somis, Feb. 23-24.
