April 18, 2008
ST. SIMON'S ISLAND, GA. - The No. 16 Auburn golf team carded a first round total of 301 and is currently in 11th place following first round action of the 2008 SEC Golf Tournament at the par-72, 7,217-yard Frederica Golf Club on St. Simon's Island, Ga., Friday.
St. Simon's Island native and senior Gordon Strother (73) led all Tigers, finishing the day tied for 17th. Senior Jay Moseley (75) is tied for 30th, while sophomore Glenn Northcutt (76) is tied for 39th, senior Patton Kizzire (77) is tied for 44th and senior Jamie Bowen (78) is tied for 49th.
Auburn finished the front nine 11-shots over par after losing four strokes on two par-5s and counting three double-bogies. The Tigers showed improvement on the back nine, dropping only two additional strokes.
"You want to get off to a good start in the conference tournament," said head coach Mike Griffin. "We didn't do that. We did not play well on the front nine and that set us back. The good thing about an extended tournament is that we have two more rounds to go where we can make up ground."
No. 2 Alabama (285) is currently in the lead followed by No. 1 Georgia (290), No. 7 Florida (290), LSU (292), Mississippi State (293), No. 14 South Carolina (294), No. 9 Tennessee (296), Ole Miss (298), Kentucky (298), Vanderbilt (300), Auburn (301) and Arkansas (308).
After round one, Alabama's Joseph Sykora (68) is in the individual lead followed by Mississippi's Jesse Speirs (70) and Alabama's Michael Thompson (70) in a two-way tie for second.
Third round action is set to begin 7:00 EST Saturday. Live scoring will be available via Golfstat (www.golfstat.com).