Sept. 11, 2009 ROCK FACE, Ga. - The Wake Forest men's golf team opened the 2009-10 season by carding a 298 in the opening round of the Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic on the 7,012-yard, par-72 layout of The Farm Golf Club. The Demon Deacons are currently in ninth place. Freshman Evan Beck, playing in his first collegiate tournament, led the Deacs with a solid round of 1-under 71 and is tied for sixth heading into Saturday. "I think we played a pretty solid round today," said Wake Forest assistant coach Dan Walters. "With team golf, if you make a couple of big numbers, you're going to shoot worse than how you felt you played. I think on a whole, we played all right but we need to eliminate the big scores. That's the difference between a two or three-over round and a 10-over round." Beck made three birdies in the first six holes and would make the turn at 3-under 33. A double-bogey at the par-4 third, his 12th hole of the day, would drop him back to 1-under and he would play even-par the rest of the way to post a 71. The Virginia Beach, Va., native made a total of five birdies in his first collegiate round. "This was a great start to Evan's career," said Walters. "He played a good solid round and held it together nicely even with a double-bogey. He has a lot of confidence right now and I think he'll have a good finish this weekend." Sophomore Lee Bedford made a total of three birdies in his opening round of 2-over 74 and will start round two in a tie for 24th. Senior Travis Wadkins made the turn at 1-over par and eventually fell to 5-over but a birdie at the par-5 ninth, his final hole, would bring him in with a round of 76. Fellow senior Preston Yates was even-par through the first six holes but back-to-back double bogeys at Nos. 16 and 17 dropped him to 4-over. He would then play the front nine at 1-over and post 77. Sophomore Daniel Meggs made a pair of triple bogeys on Friday, including one at the first hole of the day, and would round out the Deacon scorers with 78. "Overall, this wasn't a bad way to start the season," Walters continued. "We have a little more work to do over the next two rounds than what we wanted but it felt like we played better than we scored. If we eliminate the big numbers, we'll be right there." The Deacons are playing this week without senior standout Brendan Gielow who is representing Team USA this weekend at the Walker Cup. He will rejoin the team next weekend at the Illini Classic at Olympia Fields. Fourth-ranked Alabama carded the low round of the day, a 1-over 289, and leads Clemson by one-shot and South Carolina and Tennessee by two-shots heading into Saturday's second round. Jonathan Randolph of Mississippi made a total of seven birdies in his round of 4-under 68 and holds a one-shot lead over John Stembridge of Auburn in the individual standings. The second round is scheduled for Saturday morning and the final round will be on Sunday. Golfstat.com will host live scoring of each of the final two rounds. Wake Forest Scores
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