April 30, 2009
TUCSON, Ariz. -
No. 22 San Diego State finds itself in second place after the first day of the Mountain West Conference men's golf championships at the par-71, 7,136-yard OMNI Tucson National Golf Club. SDSU shot a combined 1-under 283 as three Aztecs find themselves among the top 15 on the individual leaderboard. No. 17 TCU finds itself perched atop the team standings after 18 holes, carding an 8-under 276 to take a seven-shot lead over SDSU (-1), followed by No. 37 New Mexico (E), No. 34 UNLV (+5), No. 32 Colorado State (+7), No. 72 Brigham Young (+7) and Utah (+7).
Playing in his first career MWC championship, senior Bryan Martin (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) is tied for second place with a 3-under 69, after the first round. Martin carded seven birdies in the first round to lead the 45-player field en route to tying his second-best round of the spring. He is one stroke back of TCU's Tom Hoge, who fired a first-round 67 to take the early lead.
Freshman J.J. Spaun posted the Aztecs second-best score of the day, posting three birdies to offset two bogeys en route to a 1-under 70. The San Dimas, Calif. native joins Martin in the top 10 as he sits in a tie for seventh place.
Sitting two strokes back of Spaun and within the top 15 is sophomore Johan Carlsson with a first-round 1-over 72. Carlsson got off to a shaky shot, falling to 3-over through four holes before the Gothenburg, Sweden product battled back, carding two birdies to close out the front nine and posting nine consecutive pars to finish the round at 1-over.
SDSU freshman Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) is one stroke behind Carlsson in a tie for 22nd place. Kang suffered a double-bogey on the par-4 second hole, but notched three birdies to finish at 2-over 73, just three strokes out of the top seven.
Rounding out the Scarlet and Black lineup was sophomore Matt Hoffenberg (Simi Valley, Calif.). Hoffenberg was even after the first nine, but found difficulty over the final holes to card a 6-over 77.
San Diego State will tee-off with TCU and New Mexico at 8:40 a.m. PT Friday for the second round of the 2009 MWC championships. A link for live scoring will be available on GoAztecs.com.
First-round scores with relation to par April 30, at the 2009 MWC Championships, played at the par-71, 7,136-yard OMNI Tucson National Golf Club in Tucson, Ariz.
Team Scoring
1. TCU 276 (-8)
2. San Diego State 283 (-1)
3. New Mexico 284 (E)
4. UNLV 289 (+5)
T5. Colorado State 291 (+7)
T5. Brigham Young 291 (+7)
T5. Utah 291 (+7)
8. Air Force 293 (+9)
9. Wyoming 295 (+11)
Top Nine Individuals
1. Tom Hoge (TCU) 67 (-4)
T2. Bryan Martin (SDSU) 68 (-3)
T2. Ji Moon (UNLV) 68 (-3)
T4. Johan de Beer (TCU) 69 (-2)
T4. Alexander Knappe (TCU) 69 (-2)
T4. Steve Saunders (New Mexico) 69 (-2)
T7. Riley Arp (Colorado State) 70 (-1)
T7. Brady Johnson (Brigham Young) 70 (-1)
T7. J.J. Spaun (SDSU) 70 (-1)
San Diego State
T2. Bryan Martin 68 (-3)
T7. J.J. Spaun 70 (-1)
T12. Johan Carlsson 72 (+1)
T22. Alex Kang 73 (+2)
T40. Matt Hoffenberg 77 (+6)