Friday, April 04, 2008

EVANS, Ga. (April 4, 2008) - Senior Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) fired a first round score of 3-under-par 69 Friday to tie for first place on the individual leaderboard in the Administaff/Augusta State Invitational at the Champions Retreat Golf Club.

Shaw, whose is ranked 27^th nationally, is tied with North Carolina's Chase MacFarland and UCLA's Lucas Lee for the top spot on the leaderboard, and his efforts led the Buccaneers to an eighth place standing in the 18-team field heading into Saturday's second round. ETSU fired a team score of 5-over 293 to finish nine strokes back of team leading UCLA.

"Gareth played a very good round," said ETSU head coach Fred Warren. "He played well in some spots, and made a few mistakes too, but he really held us in there. This is a tough course and we're doing some good things. We have quite a bit of talent, but we just haven't got everyone playing well at the same times."

Along with Shaw, sophomore Seamus Power (Waterford, Ireland) finished tied 25^th after posting a 1-over 73, while senior Cian McNamara (Limerick, Ireland) finished tied for 54^th with a 3-over 75 on the day.

With a weather forecast that is calling for a 100 percent chance of rain on Saturday, Warren said tournament officials will be starting play on both No. 1 and No. 10 for the second round. Fans wishing to stay up to speed with the Bucs can watch live scoring at Golfstat.com, or visit ETSUBucs.com following the day's action.