Evans Finishes First Round at NCAA Championship

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Following the first 18 holes of action on the Omni La Costa North Course, Duke men’s golf sophomore Ethan Evans is tied for 112th at the NCAA Championship. Evans, competing as an individual, shot a 6-over, 78, in the opening round.

HOW IT HAPPENED: ROUND ONE

• Ethan Evans teed off of No. 1 in the first round and immediately got into red numbers with a 50-foot birdie putt that dropped on the 415-yard, par-4, opening hole. Evans worked through five over-par holes throughout the remainder of his front-nine, eventually making the turn at 5-over.
• After moving to the back-nine, the Mercer Island, Wash., native promptly poured in back-to-back birdies on holes No. 10 and 11. Evans found the green in two on the 596-yard, par-5, 10th and two-putted from 50 feet for birdie, and then calmly sank a putt from inside 10 feet on No. 11 to move back to 3-over for the round.
• Evans then turned his attention to No. 12, a 245-yard, par-3, which the sophomore moved past with a par. After finding the rough off the tee on No. 13, he stuck his wedge approach to 10 feet and rolled in his third birdie in a four-hole stretch.
• Faced with three of the seven hardest holes on the course in a row – holes No. 14, 15 and 16 – Evans made par on all three to hold steady at 2-over. A late triple-bogey, on No. 17 – a 491-yard, par-4 – pushed Evans back to 5-over and he finished the round at 6-over after a bogey on the 605-yard, par-5, 18th.

QUOTES

• “I’m disappointed to finish like I did, given how I was able to fight back to 2-over through 16 holes. The course is tough and you can’t afford to be untidy out there. But still, I have lots of positives from today and I feel like I have momentum heading into tomorrow” – Evans on his first round

UP NEXT

• Evans returns to action in the morning wave of the second round, teeing off of No. 10 at 11:52 ET.
• Live scoring is available on Golfstat.

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