March 11, 2016
LAREDO, Texas – Heavy rains suspended play midway through Friday’s first round of the University of Houston’s 2016 Border Olympics at the Laredo Country Club. The University of Notre Dame was three-over par through 9-12 holes and stood in a 12th-place tie with Texas-San Antonio, but finds itself just three strokes out of fifth.
Freshman Ben Albin was two-under par and tied for ninth through 10 holes. He opened the round with a birdie on the 585-yard par five ninth hole. Albin followed with seven consecutive pars before another birdie on the 557-yard par five 17th. He closed out his round with a par on the 18th hole.
Junior Matt Rushton and junior Blake Barens were each one-under par and tied for 16th when played was halted. Rushton opened his round back-to-back pars on the eighth and ninth holes, but dropped a shot with a bogey on No. 10. He rebounded with birdies on both of the par fives on the back nine to get back to one-under. After opening action with three consecutive pars, Barens posted consecutive birdies on No. 13 and 14. He added a third birdie on No. 17, his third of the back nine, but gave away a couple shots with bogeys on the 16th and 18th holes.
Freshman Miguel Delgado (tied for 93rd) and junior Liam Cox (100th) both struggled out of the gates for the Irish. Delgado, who was seven-over through 12 holes, had a quadruple bogey on No. 10 and triple bogey on No. 17, but managed birdies on No. 18 and No. 2. Cox was victimized by a 10 on the par-4 18th hole and sits at nine-over par through eight holes.
Freshman Kevin Conners is tied for 82nd and four-under par through 10 holes.
No. 26 Baylor sits atop the standings at eight-under par. The Bears hold a four-shot lead over Louisiana (four-under) and five-shot advantage over Rice (three-under). McNeese State is one-under par and the only other school in red figures.
The completion of round one will begin at 7:15 a.m. Saturday. Round two will immediately following the conclusion of Friday’s suspended round. Golfstat will provide live scoring.
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Michael Bertsch, director of football media relations at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2006. An Akron, Ohio, native, he graduated from Walsh University (Ohio) in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and also received his master’s degree in health and physical education with an emphasis in sports administration from Marshall University in 2001.