It was a beautiful day at Las Vegas’ Southern Highlands Golf Club, but the wind and fast greens made for some tricky conditions in the opening round of the Southern Highlands Collegiate. (Click here to visit the livestream player page)
UNLV’s Jack Trent and Georgia Tech’s Noah Norton were the low players on the day, tied for the first round lead at 5-under. The Yellow Jackets currently hold a one-shot lead over Stanford and a four-shot lead over Oklahoma in the team standings.
“I was hitting my driver really well, and I had a lot of wedge shots in,” said Trent on his round. “When you have a lot of wedge shots on this course, you’re going to have a lot of opportunities. These greens were rolling so nice, so if you get the right line, it’s going in.”
SCORES: Who’s currently leading the Southern Highlands Collegiate?
Trent went into the tournament with the plan to be aggressive, and he also noted his advantage of playing on his team’s home course. That said, Sunday’s firm greens made the course play a little different.
“The way we usually play, it’s very soft. So when it’s firm like this, it’s actually different. On the greens, it’s kind of new to us. It’s only this firm once or twice a year.”
Also noting the firm and difficult greens, Norton said his key to success was playing smart and scoring early.
“When you’re not in the right spot, you just have to take your medicine,” said Norton. “I just got it going early and played really well on the front. It wasn’t great down the stretch, but I had such a good front-nine I was able to maintain 5-under.”
Monday’s second round begins at noon Eastern, and you can livestream all the action here at Golfweek.com.
