Oct. 17, 2005
LA QUINTA, Calif. – Playing in foul weather conditions throughout the day, the Notre Dame men’s golf team is tied for eighth place following the first round of The Prestige at PGA WEST, which began Monday in La Quinta, Calif., on the Greg Norman Course (par 72/7,156 yards) at the famed PGA WEST complex. The Irish carded a first-round score of 296 (+8), putting them even with Northern Colorado and 16 shots back of tournament leader and 13th-ranked UCLA. The first round was played in a persistent rain and there was even a short delay for lightning in the area early in the afternoon. As a result, teams were not able to complete the second round, which was suspended due to darkness and will resume Tuesday morning.
Notre Dame battled through the elements, as well as a reconfigured lineup due to the absence of its low scorer, senior Mark Baldwin (Laconia, N.H./New Hampton Prep), who is attending to a family emergency. Sophomore Mike King (Sidney, Ohio/Sidney) looked to pick up some of the slack in the first round, firing a one-under par 71 to tie for eighth place in the 90-man field. It was King’s second-lowest round ever as a member of the Irish starting five, topped only by a 70 he shot at the 2004 Nelson Invitational.
A trio of Notre Dame golfers — seniors Scott Gustafson (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) and Eric Deutsch (Rochester, Minn./Lourdes), as well as sophomore Greg Rodgers (Phoenix, Md./St. Paul’s School) — were tied for 38th place after registering matching scores of three-over par 75. Surprisingly, junior Cole Isban (South Bend, Ind./Mishawaka Marian) had the high round of the day for the Irish, shooting a four-over par 76 to tie for 51st place. It marked only the seventh time in 80 collegiate rounds that Isban did not see his score count to the team total.
The 18-team field is bunched up through the first round, with just eight strokes separating second-place Colorado from 13th-place Oregon. Notre Dame finds itself one shot behind No. 9 BYU and one shot ahead of No. 16 Texas and 2004 NCAA champion California through the opening 18 holes.
Weather permitting, teams will return to the Greg Norman Course at PGA WEST Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. (PDT) to resume second-round action in The Prestige at PGA WEST. The third and final round will begin immediately upon conclusion of the second round. Live scoring for the tournament is available through the Golfstat web site (www.golfstat.com), and a complete recap and final statistics will be available upon conclusion of the day’s events on the official Irish athletics web site (www.und.com), as well as the Notre Dame Sports Hotline (574-631-3000).
— ND —
TEAM RESULTS (18-hole totals): 1. UCLA 280; 2. Colorado 290; 3. (tie) UC Irvine and Stanford 291; 5. Illinois 293; 6. (tie) BYU and Yale 295; 8. (tie) NOTRE DAME 296 and Northern Colorado 296; 10. (tie) California, Pepperdine and Texas 297; 13. Oregon 298; 14. Ohio State 302; 15. Pacific 303; 16. UC Davis 306; 17. Kansas 309; 18. UC Santa Barbara 313.
TOP SEVEN INDIVIDUALS PLUS NOTRE DAME GOLFERS (of 90): 1. Edward McGlasson (Colorado) 67; 2. Mark Matza (Yale) 68; 3. Erik Flores (UCLA) 69; 4. (tie) Chris Heintz (UCLA), Tim Knight (Northern Colorado), Lucas Lee (UCLA) and Danny Zimmerman (Illinois) 70; 8. (tie) Mike King (Notre Dame) 71; 38. (tie) Scott Gustafson (Notre Dame), Eric Deutsch (Notre Dame) and Greg Rodgers (Notre Dame) 75; 51. (tie) Cole Isban (Notre Dame) 76.