Strong Opening Rounds Highlights Monday at Pinehurst

PINEHURST, N.C. – The Wake Forest men’s golf team came out firing in the opening round of the Wake Forest Invitational at Pinehurst No. 2, taking the lead into the second round of the tournament Monday.

Junior Michael Brennan paced the team in the opening round, recording a season-low 64 (-6) which was just two strokes off the course record set by Tom Watson at the 1973 World Open. Brennan took the individual lead into the second round and was as low as 7-under-par during the day. After the second round, he still remains in contention for the individual title as he is just four strokes back with 18 holes to play.

If Brennan were to come back and win an individual title, this would be the second in three starts this spring and his sixth overall in his career. Only three Demon Deacons have more than six or more titles in their collegiate career: Bill Haas (10), Gary Hallberg (9) and Curtis Strange (8).

The Demon Deacons as a team are tied for sixth with a two-round score of 577 (+17), sitting ahead of or tied with ACC foes Clemson, Duke and NC State.

The Deacs have tended to play their best golf in the final round of the tournament this season with three of the four lowest rounds coming in the final rounds of tournaments this season. This including the Battle at Briar’s Creek where Wake Forest fought back from eight strokes down going into the final day to pull ahead and win by nine stokes, a 17-stroke difference:

The Demon Deacons had five total players finish inside of the top 25 with freshman Andrew McLauchlan tied for 16th. He had the lowest second round out of any Deac golfer and was one of just 12 players in the entire field to be below par in the second. Junior Clay Stirsman also had a strong second round to help shoot up the leaderboard. He goes into the…