May 14, 2009
NCAA AUSTIN REGIONAL DAY ONE RESULTS 
GALLERY
AUSTIN, Tx. - If all five members of the UTA golf team could have played like the Mavericks Zack Fischer, they would be in position to move into their first ever NCAA final in a few weeks.
That was not the case however and the Mavericks will have a good deal of work to do in the last two rounds to make that NCAA finals appearance in Toledo, Ohio at the end of May.
Fischer was the lone bright spot for UTA Thursday at The University of Texas Golf Club in Austin as he fired an even par 71 and is in a tie for sixth place after the first round.
"I thought he had a great round," Mavericks head coach Jay Rees said. "He really did a good job of grinding it out and played with the same effort he showed two weeks ago at the conference tournament."
No other UTA player could do better than 77 and the Mavs find themselves in 11th place, out of 13 teams, after the first 18 holes with a 24-over score of 308.
Fischer had a chance to shoot a low number as he made birdie on two of the first three holes on the back nine to get to one-under.
"After I made those two birdies I thought there were more out there and I hit some good shots coming in but 15 through 18 are a tough stretch of holes," he said. "It's a tough course and you have to hit it in the right place or you can make a big number and at least I avoided that."
The players had to fight through a strong breeze all day on the par 71, 7,412-yard course.
"It wasn't windy but I would call it breezy," Fischer said. "It was enough to get into your head and you had to think about what you were doing."
Fischer complimented his head coach on helping him get around the course under those conditions.
"Coach really helped me around today," Fischer said. "I think I got everything out of my round. I missed a couple of shorter putts on the front nine but I think I got what I could out of it."
The remainder of the team struggled as Kevin Carrigan was the next lowest player at six-over 77 (T38th) while Bryce Easton shot an eight-over 79 (T51st).
The Mavericks number one player Bobby Massa battled not only the course but a case of the stomach flu all day and ended with a 10-over 81 (T61st).
To add insult to the day, the Mavericks finished playing with just four players after Michael Van de Venter was forced to withdraw from the round on the 15th hole with the same stomach flu.
Among the high scores for the Mavericks were four triple bogeys that were counted.
"We counted four triples and that really hurt us," Rees said. "We had two of them on the sixth hole and two more on seven. We actually played better on the back nine. But when you have those scores that early in the round it puts you in a hole that is hard to fight your way out of."
Rees was going to use the remainder of the afternoon to regroup and get ready for Friday's second round.
"We are going to go out and work this afternoon and get ready for tomorrow," Rees said. "We need to eliminate the big numbers tomorrow and try to move up the leaderboard. If we can count no worse than a bogey tomorrow I know we will move up the board."
Texas Tech used four individual rounds of even-par or better to shoot a 2-under-par 282 en route to a nine-stroke lead after the first day at the NCAA Men's Golf Austin Regional at The University of Texas Golf Club (par-71, 7,412 yards). Host Texas finished at 7-over-par 291 and rests in second place, while Florida stands in third at 9-over-par 293.
Texas junior Lance Lopez and Lamar junior Hugues Joannes are tied for the individual lead after both fired rounds of 3-under-par 68. Three other individuals, Nils Floren and Brian Scherer of Texas Tech and Steve Ziegler of Stanford, all posted scores of 1-under-par 70. Texas Tech also counted even-par rounds from Garrett Merrell and Chris Ward.
Stanford, the top seed at the Austin Regional, is in fourth place after the first 18 holes at 10-over-par 294. UNLV and Lamar are tied for fifth in the team standings at 12-over-par 296. The low five teams and low individual not on those teams at the Austin Regional will advance to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for May 26-30 in Toledo, Ohio.
Lopez, who began his round at hole 10, used birdies at 10, 12 and 18 en route to a 3-under-par 33 on the back nine. He then made the turn and moved to 4-under with a birdie on one. After a bogey on three and birdie on six to stay at 4-under, he made back-to-back bogeys on seven and eight to drop to 2-under before finishing his round with a birdie on the par-five ninth hole.
Joannes opened the day with three straight birdies and ended with six overall to go along with three bogeys. The 68 marked the lowest first-round score of his Lamar career and the third time he has carded a 68 this season. It also marked the second-lowest 18-hole round in a NCAA Regional tourney by a Lamar individual, just behind Dawie van der Walt's 67 in the second round of the 2005 regional in South Bend, Ind.
Second-round play gets underway on Friday, May 15 at 8:30 a.m. The top three teams after round one (Texas Tech, Texas and Florida) are slated to tee off beginning at 9:40 a.m. on hole one.
