The Upper Iowa men's golf team teed it up Thursday morning at Adams Pointe Golf Club for the first day of the NSIC Men's Golf Championship. Each of the 10 competing NSIC teams in Blue Springs, Missouri opened the tournament by playing 18 holes.
After one round, the Peacocks are in first place thanks to an opening score of 296 (+8), their second best round as a team in any competition this season. Concordia-St. Paul are one stroke behind after an opening round of 297 (+9) while the University of Minnesota-Crookston are in third place with a score of 302 (+14).
Individually,
Nolan Leaton is currently tied atop the leaderboard with Concordia's Thomas Huettl after recording an opening round of 70 (-2). Leaton began the day on the back nine where he birdied hole 10 before recording an eagle on hole 11, one of only three eagles recorded across all competitors on the day. After round one, Leaton is currently tied for second amongst all competitors with 13 pars and finished second in Par 4 scoring with a 3.80 stroke average (-2).
Tate Carlson also cracked the top five for UIU after posting an opening round of 72 (E) that has him currently in third place. Carlson's four birdies were the second most across all competitors on day one.
Trent Shaw and
Nathan Petrak each finished with rounds of 77 (+5) to complete the team score and are tied for 18th. Shaw led all competitors in Par 4 scoring with a 3.70 stroke average (-3). Both UIU golfers tied for third with three birdies apiece on the day.
Jacob Mahloch finished one stroke behind them with a score of 78 (+6) and is tied for 26th.
As a team, UIU led the field in Par 4 scoring with a 3.96 stroke average (-2) and with 14 total birdies.
"I'm immensely proud of these guys today," said Head Coach
Mike Lewis. "They have all put in a tremendous amount of work and the fruit of their labor showed today. We will continue to stick to our process and game plan for this golf course."
The Peacocks return to Adams Pointe tomorrow morning for the second 18-holes of the NSIC Championship. Tee-time starts are set for 9 a.m. and fans can continue to follow the action via live scoring at uiupeacocks.com/live.
