UTC's Freshman Liam Johnston (Dumfries, Scotland) is tied for 13th after firing an even-par 71 at historic Riviera Country Club to open the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship. Johnston’s round included five of Chattanooga’s eight birdies.
It wasn’t an easy 71 but one well-earned. Johnston hit just seven fairways and eight greens. He recorded just 25 putts and didn’t even need one on the sixth hole.
His first tee shot went perilously close to out-of-bounds on the right side. So much so, he took a provisional that landed about four feet from the hole.
He found his first ball and played his chip shot well past the hole utilizing the slope to bring it back down near the hole. The plan worked to perfection as the slope led the ball into the cup for a birdie two.
He is tied for 13th at level par. His four compadres each shot five-over par 76s for the Mocs’ 299 total. Davis Bunn (Knoxville, Tenn.), Stephan Jaeger (Munich, Germany) and Chris Robb (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) each had a birdie and 11 pars on their cards, while Steven Fox (Hendersonville, Tenn.) had 13 pars without a birdie.
UTC is tied for 24th with TCU, Virginia Tech, Memphis and Lamar. That group is one shot behind No. 15 Texas A&M and No. 6 Southern California. No. 2 Alabama leads at one-over par 285. UCLA’s Anton Arboleda is the individual leader at four-under par 67.
Bunn leads off for Chattanooga at 11:40 a.m. (ET) followed by Johnston (8:50), Robb (9:00), Fox (9:10) and Jaeger (9:20). Live scoring can be accessed on GoMocs.com on the men’s golf schedule page.