May 26, 2009
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TOLEDO, Ohio - Freshman Daniel Meggs went 1-under par on his second nine holes to finish with a round of 2-over 73 and lead the Wake Forest men's golf team to a round of 302 on a soggy first day of the 2009 NCAA Men's Golf Championships at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Fellow freshman Lee Bedford made a pair of birdies in his round of 4-over 75 while senior Dustin Groves and juniors Brendan Gielow and Travis Wadkins all posted rounds of 77. "We just didn't have a really good team round today," said Wake Forest head coach Jerry Haas. "One or two holes seem to get us today and we had a few three putts that didn't help. But if you look at it, it's probably going to take something around 23, 24, 25-over to get in the top-8 by the end of the week. We didn't make it easy on ourselves with today's round but we're still going to be right there." The Demon Deacons opened the round under threatening skies and by the second hole, it began to rain. The light rain stayed in the area for most of the first nine but resided on the back nine. Wake posted the seventh-best round of the morning wave and finished the day in 20th place. The Deacs are just eight strokes out of eighth place as the top-8 teams at the end of 54-holes will move onto to match-play which will determine the team champion. Meggs started his round with four bogeys in the first eight holes but a nice birdie at the par-4 18th gave him a 3-over 39 at the turn. He opened the front with five straight pars before lacing a 3-wood on the long par-3 sixth to ten feet and rolling in the putt for birdie.
A wayward drive forced a bogey at No. 7 but he quickly responded with a birdie at the par-5 8th and closed with a good par at No. 9 to finish with a round of 2-over 73 and is tied for 29th. "I struggled early with hitting everything right but I made a nice birdie on No. 18 and that kind of got me going as I made the turn," said Meggs. "I made a good birdie on No. 6 and another on No. 8 and a nice up-and-down on No. 9 to somehow finish it off." "The rain made things pretty tough this morning," Meggs continued. "This is a really hard course and if they can't cut the rough, it's going to be brutal. It really puts a premium on hitting the ball in the fairway." Inverness has hosted a total of eight major championships and will certainly provide a tough test this week. It is a par-71 and with the wet conditions, it's playing all of 7,255 yards. "The course is a U.S. Open style course," said Haas. "It's a major championship course that you can be just a little off and make a lot of bogeys. You can also get a good bounce or make a putt of chip you shouldn't have made and keep yourself in the round. So you're always teetering on the edge throughout the round and that's what makes it interesting." Bedford's round was pretty much the opposite of Meggs'. The Cary, N.C., native made one birdie and one bogey in his first nine holes to turn at even-par. But four bogeys in the first five holes on the front quickly dropped him to 4-over par. He made another bogey at No. 7 but got it back with a birdie at No. 8 to finish with a 75. Bedford will start the second round tied for 56th. Gielow made a nice 15-foot twisting birdie putt on his first hole of the day but wasn't able to get another putt to fall the rest of the round. He made three bogeys to close the back nine at 2-over 38 and made four bogeys in a four-hole stretch on the front to finish with a 6-over 77. Groves made a pair of bogeys to start the round but he then stuck his approach at No. 17 to five feet and rolled in the birdie putt to climb back to 1-over and that's where he stood when he made his way to the par-3 third. His tee-shot at the 200-yard hole found the water and after a drop, his third shot plugged in the left greenside bunker. After a pitch out, Groves would walk off with a quadruple-bogey seven and fall to 5-over-par. He recovered a bit and would make five pars and just one bogey on his way in for a round of 77. Wadkins bogeyed his first hole of the day but after birdies on holes 13 and 16, he found himself at even-par. However, the Dallas, Texas, native bogeyed the last two holes of the first nine and made four more bogies on the second to post a 77. Oklahoma State and Georgia both carded rounds of 4-over 288 and lead the team race by four shots over Chattanooga. Arizona State, Ohio State and Tennessee all posted rounds of 10-over 294 and are tied for sixth. Wake will again be paired with San Diego and TCU for Wednesday's round which is set to get underway at 1:17 pm. "Looking at the next two days, we're going to need a really good round and a really solid round," said Haas. "The guys are capable of it. They are resilient and they always seem to bounce back. I know they're a little disappointed right now but we'll get after it tomorrow." Live scoring of the next two rounds can be found at www.golfstat.com and NCAA.com will have live coverage of the action on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wake Forest Scores |
