ATHENS, Ga. – The No. 12 Fighting Illini men's golf team got off to a slow start Monday at the NCAA Athens Regional but fought back to even-par to pull within striking distance of the lead groups with 36 holes to play at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
Illinois, the regions second-seeded team, carded an opening score of 272 (E) and is tied for eighth with Harvard. The Orange and Blue are five strokes outside of a tie for fifth held by Rice and host UGA, with the top five teams earning a spot in the NCAA Championship after 54 holes.
"We got off to a bad start, and that's a big no-can-do in regional play," head coach Mike Small said. "But to their credit, they came back and played solid after that. We just had too many big numbers; we made a lot of birdies - we had 19 birdies as a team - but only shot even-par. Our ability to limit big numbers was not there today. "
The five members of the Illini lineup combined to go 9-over on the first three holes of the day, but got back on track to chip away at the deficit and climb up the leaderboard, led by top-20 scores from junior Max Herendeen (-2) and sophomore Trey Marrion (-1) who are tied for 12th and 17th, respectively.
"Tomorrow, we have to make it a point, and our team has to understand, that it can't happen again," Small added. "Our backs are against the wall. Tomorrow's a big day. We have to tidy up our games a little bit earlier and come out with purpose. We can't keep giving shots away to the field like this. There are a lot of good teams here and the conditions don't separate a lot of people, so we can't have these unforced errors."
Herendeen carded a tournament-leading eight birdies on the day, using the first three to erase a triple-bogey on No. 3. He added five more on the back nine, offsetting a pair of missteps with a double-bogey on 14 and a bogey on 16 to post a 2-under 69. Herendeen has now carded par or better in seven career rounds of NCAA Regionals competition.
Marrion also posted an early deficit with a bogey on No. 1. However, it proved to be the only blip in his scorecard, as he made the turn at 1-over and carded a pair of birdies on Nos. 13 and 17 to finish with a 71 (-1).
Senior Ryan Voois (+1) and sophomore Freddie Turnell (+2) rounded out the scoring for the Illini in Round 1, tied for 39th and 47th, respectively. Junior Dane Huddleston shot 3-over, one shot off Turnell's pace, but his 74 did not factor into the Illini's team score in Round 1.
No. 36 Louisville holds a three-stroke lead atop the team leaderboard at 10-under, followed by No. 1 Auburn and No. 13 Vanderbilt in a tie for second at 7-under. No. 24 BYU (-6) is one stroke ahead of Rice and Georgia, and the College of Charleston (-1) is one stroke ahead of the Illini.
Auburn's Josiah Gilbert leads the medalist race at 6-under, four shots ahead of Herendeen heading into Tuesday's second round.
Tuesday's second round is set to tee off beginning at 8 a.m. ET/7 a.m. CT. The Illini, paired with College of Charleston and Harvard, will start off Hole 1 beginning at 8:55 a.m. ET/7:55 a.m. CT. Live scoring is available on Clippd Scoreboard. Streaming coverage is also available via subscription on BabygrandeGolf.com.
