BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 1 Auburn men's golf shot 2-over 290 in Tuesday's middle round of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional to hold steady in second place ahead of Wednesday's final round.
Auburn remains five shots back of the leading squad, No. 12 Virginia, who sits at 6-under. The Tigers also have a nine-shot buffer between themselves and the projected cutline, which currently stands at 8-over.
For Wednesday's regional finale, Auburn will play alongside the Cavaliers and No. 14 Texas Tech. Butler will lead off for the Tigers from the first hole at 8 a.m. CT.
Junior Brendan Valdes highlighted the Tigers' second-round effort with a 2-under 70. The Orlando, Florida product started slow with only one birdie over his first 10 holes but turned it on late and made four more birdies over his final eight holes. He capped his round with a birdie on the par-4 18th.
Junior Carson Bacha and freshman Jackson Koivun both finished 1-over for the round with a pair of 73s. Freshman Josiah Gilbert shot 74 (+2). Entering the final 18 holes of the regional, Valdes, Koivun, Bacha and Gilbert all hold strong inside the top-15 of the individual leaderboard. Koivun trails the leader, Duke's Ethan Evans, by five.
Senior J.M. Butler shot 77 (+5) in his second round. He is 6-over through 36 holes.