On a day where birdie putts were at a premium, it was a trio of eagle putts that separated the wheat from the chaff Sunday at the Southern Highlands Collegiate.
After a blustery first round of play in one of the most competitive fields in men’s college golf, there’s a two-way tie for the individual lead between USC’s Yuxin Lin and Georgia’s Davis Thompson at 5 under.
UCLA’s Devon Bling held the solo lead for a brief period after lagging his eagle putt on the par-5 ninth hole to two feet for an easy birdie to move to 4 under. Shortly after, and just a few feet from Bling’s putt, Lin did the same, just missing for eagle and tapping in for birdie to claim the solo lead at 5 under.
Southern Highlands: Team Leaderboard | Individual
In the day’s penultimate group, Thompson hit a perfect drive on the par-5 18th and stuck his approach from just outside 240 yards, setting up an eagle to join Lin atop the individual leaderboard.
With consistent gusting winds for the majority of the round, only six other players were under par for the day, all T-4 to round out the top 10: Mac Meissner, SMU; Johnny Travale, UCF; Ricky Castillo, Florida; Evan Katz, Duke; Issei Tanabe, USC; Hidetoshi Yoshihara, UCLA.
In the team competition, Lin and Tanabe led the Trojans to the top of the leaderboard at 1 under. USC is the sole team under par, followed by Texas (4 over), UCLA (5 over) and Florida and Texas Tech (T-4, 7 over). Defending champion and top-ranked Oklahoma, who returns four of five players from last year’s SHC lineup, is 11 shots back at 10 over.
