Thursday, May 18, 2006

            TUCSON, Ariz. (May 18, 2006) - Sophomore Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) fired a 3-under-par 69 and junior Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) posted a 2-under 70 to lead the ETSU men's golf team to a tie for 10^th following first round play in the NCAA West Regional Thursday at the Omni Tucson National Golf Course. The top 10 finishers in the three-day event will earn berths in the NCAA Championships May 31-June 3 in Sunriver, Ore.

            The 11^th-ranked Buccaneers posted a team score of 4-under 284, which was just one stroke shy of matching their best individual round of the season. Meanwhile, Florida leads the team competition at 15-under 273, followed by second place Arizona which posted a 9-under 279.

On the individual leaderboard, four players are tied at the top with 5-under 68s, while 10 more players are tied for fifth at 4-under 69. Shaw is currently tied for 15^th, while Davies is tied for 26^th.

            "We did play well early on today, but we didn't finish as strong as we would have liked," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren, whose team opened the round with a string of birdies on the first two holes. "Because the weather is so good here it makes for low scoring conditions. Before the round, I thought 12 to 16 under would lead and eight to 10 under would be a good score. Overall, we're not disappointed in the round. We're in contention and we have a chance to go off early tomorrow and try to post some scores."

            Along with Shaw and Davies, sophomore Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland) posted an even-par 72 and finished tied for 53^rd, while freshman Adam Hodkinson (Dore, England) finished at 1-over 73 and ended the day tied for 72^nd.

            The Bucs will continue in second round action Friday, followed by third round play on Saturday. Fans can keep up with the action by watching live scoring provided at Golfstat.com, or by getting a complete wrap up each night on ETSUBucs.com.