The Chattanooga Mocs have the early lead at the Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championships. The Mocs turned in 290 over their opening 18 holes at Pinehurst No. 9.

Will Porter led the consistent effort with a 2-under 70. Andrew Weathers and Etienne Brault shot 73s with Lake Johnson’s 74 rounding out the team score. Luke Long had the drop score of 76. 

“It was a good, solid day out of everybody,” Coach Mark Guhne stated. “If you have one guy playing really good, but it’s just covering a couple of guys who are struggling, that’s tough. Right now we have five guys who can all go out and shoot a really good number tomorrow and keep things going.”

Porter was near perfect on the day. He had three birdies and 14 pars with just a bogey at 14 blemishing his card. The counting cards played 62 of the 72 holes par or better, a season-best 86.1 percent rate.

The 290 is 10-plus strokes better than the squad’s opening round average of 300.40 over the regular season. The second and third round average of 292.68 provide a positive outlook for the next two days.

“We’ve worked on (getting better starts) all year,” Guhne continued. “I think it’s getting through to us that you don’t have to get off to 6 under starts. Just go out, hits some fairways and greens, make some pars…things will care of itself. 

“Today, we were much more patient. The guys had really good lines, made good choices and committed to their shots. They did exactly what we knew we were capable of doing but hadn’t this year.

“Hopefully we can do that for two more days. It’s nice to get off to a good start instead of digging ourselves out of a hole.”

The Mocs lead second-place ETSU (292) by two. UNCG (297) is in third followed by Furman (301), Samford (303), Mercer (309), Western Carolina (319) and Wofford (320). Samford’s Harlan Winn is the individual leader at 3 under, one ahead of Porter.

 
LINEUP
2) Will Porter: 70 (-2)
T6) Andrew Weathers: 73 (+1)
T6) Etienne Brault: 73 (+1)
T11) Lake Johnson: 74 (+2)
T18) Luke Long: 76 (+4)