Cats Sit Atop Leaderboards After Day One of NCAA Championships

CARLSBAD, Calif. – No. 15 Arizona Men’s Golf rose to the challenge on a difficult scoring day to open the NCAA Championships, carding a 2-over par round on Friday to tie Virginia for first place. Junior Tiger Christensen paced the Wildcats with a 2-under round of 70 to put him in a tie for fifth. Omni La Costa’s North Course tested the field of 30 teams without a single program breaking par and only 12 of 153 golfers shooting below par.

“Today was a real tone setter for our program and a great display of focus,” said head coach Jim Anderson. “We came out dialed in to our game plan, took the challenge of the course head on, and played one of our most complete rounds of the season. Tiger posted a top-five score, which really set the tone for us with Filip and Sam right behind him. Our challenge becomes maintaining our play and keeping this momentum going tomorrow and for the days to come.”

Arizona was not as strong as it usually is on the course’s longest holes but made up for it with top-10 scoring averages on the par 3’s and par 4’s. Before dropping its lowest score, the Wildcats’ five-man lineup shot four over on the front nine and five over on the back nine. Christensen made his move after the turn on Friday, shooting bogey-free 3-under on the back nine holes. Sophomore Filip Jakubcik’s even par round put him in a tie for 13^th place while Sommerhauser’s 1-over performance also put him in the top 25 for the Cats.

Not only did no teams break par in the opening round, but half of the 30-team field shot 10-over par or worse. Co-leaders Arizona and Virginia lead North Carolina by a stroke and Georgia Tech by a pair of shots. The top 12 teams on the leaderboard are separated by a total of seven strokes going into the weekend.

After going off on Friday as one of the last teams out in the afternoon, the Wildcats will tee off on Saturday at 7:57 a.m. (MST) off the first hole alongside Illinois and Florida. Arizona will look to maintain its top billing through the next two rounds, which will see the field cut in half for the fourth round and final day of stroke play on Monday before match play begins.