May 19, 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. - Sophomore Jay Moseley followed his opening round 72 with a 1-under 71 Friday to help the Auburn men's golf team move up a spot into eighth with a 294 for a 590 total after the NCAA East Regional second round at the par-72, 7179-yard Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla.
The Tigers have a six-shot cushion from 11th-place and 11th-ranked Georgia State as the top 10 teams in the 27-team field advance to the NCAA Championship. Auburn is only one shot out of sixth and five shots from fifth.
Top-ranked Georgia continues to hold the lead with 294-578, two shots ahead of No. 9 UNLV (293-580). No. 16 Wake Forest is in third at 296-581 followed by No. 13 Texas Tech (293-582), No. 12 North Carolina (291-585), No. 24 Coastal Carolina (288-589), Charlotte (290-589), Auburn (294-590), No. 5 UCLA (300-592) and No. 19 Southern California (294-592) to round out the top 10.
"I am extremely proud of Jay," said Auburn head coach Mike Griffin. "At one point, he had it at 4-under and lost a few shots coming in. He is playing very well right now and to be under par in this field on this golf course is very good. He is carrying our flag very high."
Moseley jumped seven spots into a tie for eighth at 1-under 143, only four shots behind Southern California's Taylor Wood, who holds the individual lead at 5-under with a 70-69--139. Moseley was as low as 4-under par on the day with birdies at the fifth, ninth, 10th and 14th holes, but recorded three-straight bogeys on Nos. 15-17. The Bainbridge, Ga., native chipped in for his bogey on 16.
"I said yesterday that I couldn't hit it any better, but I hit it even better today," Moseley said. "I had seven putts within eight feet for birdie and made four of them. I have hit great shots both days except for two wedges that got me into trouble. I am very pleased with the way that I am playing."
Senior All-SEC Stuart Moore and sophomore Patton Kizzire have shot identical 74s both days and are tied for 27th at 4-over 148. Moore started his round with 10-straight pars before going bogey, birdie, bogey and bogey on Nos. 11-14. Kizzire had his second consecutive slow start, going 3-over Thursday. He was 4-over in the second round before playing the more difficult back nine at 2-under par with a trio of birdies on Nos. 12, 16 and 17. On his outward nine, Kizzire opened with a bogey followed by a birdie on No. 2 and then had a three-hole stretch of bogey, double bogey and bogey on Nos. 6-8.
"Stuart as usual continues to play well," Griffin said. "The tougher the course normally the better he plays. Patton has a pair of 74s, and he struggled early but showed a lot of character in turning his round around with two birdies in the final three holes to finish strong."
Freshman Glenn Northcutt is tied for 60th at 76-75--151 while junior Andrew Medley is tied for 112th at 77-81--158. A shot off the individual lead are first round leader Jonathan Jackson (74-140) of North Carolina and UNLV's Jarred Texter (70-140).
"In all honesty, I was hoping for a little better," said Griffin. "Today is move day and although we moved up, we didn't do what some other teams did. We played better and scored better but not quite as good as we were hoping for. Regardless of the fact, it is good to move up. We have a chance to go out and set a pace and try to put this thing away. That will be our goal to try to go out and play as well as we can as early as we can and put this thing on ice."
No. 11 Georgia State is in 11th at 298-596, four shots behind both UCLA and Southern California, who are on the cutline. South Carolina is in 12th at 293-597 followed by Rhode Island (313-601), Georgia Southern (307-602), Jacksonville (305-602), Tennessee (293-603), Indiana (305-604), Notre Dame (308-608), Florida State (308-610) and Western Illinois (315-613) to round out the top 20.
Liberty (303-614) and George Washington (307-614) are tied for 21st ahead of Maryland (312-617), Richmond (316-625), Wichita State (315-626), Binghamton (324-636) and Army (326-640).
Auburn tees off in Saturday's third and final round at 6:47 am Central on the No. 1 tee with Charlotte and Southern California. Live-scoring of all three NCAA Regionals can be followed at www.golfstat.com. The NCAA Championship, which Auburn has advanced to 13 times and nine since 1993, is May 31-June 3 at Crosswater Golf Club at Sunriver (Ore.) Resort.