-Looks the Chattanooga Mocs like life on Pacific Daylight Time. The Mocs shot 17-under 551 over 36 holes at the Meadow Club in day one of the Alister Mackenzie Invitational.
That puts the quintet in sixth, 12 shots behind Pepperdine in the lead at 539. St. Mary’s is in second at 544 followed by host Cal (546), Boise State (549) and Long Beach State (550) in front of Chattanooga. San Diego State and San Joe State tied for seventh with 554. SJSU's Sean Yu is the individual leader at 15-under 127.
Oliver Simonsen led the morning round with a 4-under 67.
He was supported by Matt Smith's 69 and Moritz Lammel's 70. Will Porter closed the counting scores with 72 for a 278. Connor Nolan had the drop score with 74.
The afternoon saw another 67, this time by Nolan, a California native. The lead score came from Porter with 66, while Smith improved a stroke to 68. Simonsen added 72 to total 273, while Lammel dropped a 79.
That made for an impressive day with a search through the record book. The second round 273 is the lowest 18 since Oct. 14, 2013 with 273 over the second 18 at the Autotrader Collegiate. The 551 is the second-lowest 36 total behind 547 on Sept. 10, 2007 in the Scenic City Invitational at Council Fire G.C., which also played at par 71 for that event.
The last time three Mocs shot in the 60s in the same round was March 6, 2017 at the Cleveland Golf Palmetto Intercollegiate. That team shot 275 (-5) led by Stuart Thomas with 66 followed by Lake Johnson (68) and Wes Gosselin (69).
The last time four Mocs shot in the 60s in a single tournament was April 4-5, 2009 at the Administaff Augusta State Invite. That quarter was Derek Rende (2), Fredrik Qvicker, Ben Rickett and Stephan Jaeger.
There was just one round in the 60s on the ledger this season which was A.J. Lintunen’s 3-under 69 in the final 18 of the Carpet Capital Collegiate. There were five over today’s 36.
Tomorrow’s final round starts at 11 a.m., Eastern time. Live scoring and pairings are available at the links above.
LINEUP
6th of 15: 278-273=551 (-17)
T18) Matt Smith: 69-68=137 (-5)
21) Will Porter: 72-66=138 (-4)
T28) Oliver Simonsen: 67-72-139 (-3)
T39) Connor Nolan: 74-67=141 (-1)
T76) Moritz Lammel: 70-79=149 (+7)