What You Need to Know:
- The Georgia State men's golf team shot an opening round 4-over 292 to stand in 13th place following day one of the inaugural White Sands Invitational at the Ocean Club in Nassau, Bahamas.
- Senior Ashton Poole led the Panthers with a 1-under 71 and is tied for 29th with two rounds to play.
- The Panthers are playing in their fourth and final event of the fall and the first of two-straight in the Caribbean.
NASSAU, Bahamas – Led by a 1-under 71 from senior Ashton Poole, the Georgia State men's golf team shot an opening round 4-over 292 on Friday at the inaugural White Sands Invitational at the Ocean Club.
Poole, who has three top 25 finishes in three events this fall, made four birdies on day one and stands in a tie for 29th place.
The Panthers stand in 13th place, but only 10 strokes out of sixth place with 36 holes to play.
"We got off to a bit of a bumpy start and made some big numbers on the 16th hole," head coach Chad Wilson said. "After that we seemed to settle down. We just need to keep making birdies and limit our mistakes and we can quickly climb back up the leaderboard on Saturday."
Senior Egill Gunnarsson added an even par 72 for the Panthers and stands in a tie for 41st, while fellow senior Josh Edgar shot 74 and is tied for 61st at 2-over par. Junior Owen Sertl is tied for 68th following an opening round 3-over par 75, while sophomore David Li rounded out the line-up with a 6-over 78 and is tied for 79th.
Florida State opened the tournament with a 13-under 275 to lead by one stroke after day one. No. 39 Houston is in second-place at 12-under, with No. 2 SMU in third-place at 10-under par. No. 22 Arkansas and Middle Tennessee State are tied for fourth-place at 9-under par.
Wake Forest's Parker Gillam shot a NCAA record-low tying 12-under 60 to take a six-stroke lead into round two. Florida State's Calvin Sierota and Wisconsin's Nick Robinson are tied for second-place at 6-under par, while UNLV's Mac Miessner and Arkansas' Julian Perico are tied for fourth-place at 5-under par.
Live scoring of the entire tournament will be available at Golfstat.com. Georgia State will tee off as part of a shotgun start on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. for Round 2.
Following this week's event, Georgia State will return to the course to open the spring season Feb. 23-25, at the Puerto Rico Classic at TPC Dorado Beach.
