(RMC Athletics release)
SILVIS, Ill. – The Rocky Mountain College men’s golf team struggled through the first round of the 2018 NAIA Men’s Golf National Championship on Tuesday at TPC Deere Run. The Battlin’ Bears ended the opening round with a team score of 18-over-par, 302, to rank 21st in the 29-team field.
Going out as the final groups of the morning session, Rocky played most of the round in colder temperatures. As a team, they finished the round with only 11 birdies and 49 pars to rank in the middle of the leaderboard in each category.
Michael Tait led the Rocky effort on Tuesday at 2-over, 73, to place tied for 43rd overall. He tallied six birdies in the round – including consecutive birdies on holes No. 4 and No. 5 – to finish the round tied for second in the category. Tait finished the round by scoring 1-under over the final five holes.
Mitchell Thiessen shot an opening round 75 and sits tied for 68th-place after 18 holes. Thiessen recorded a birdie on No. 16 and finished the day with 13 pars.
Colton Murphy shot 5-over-par, 76, during Tuesday’s round and he ended the day in a tie for 90th-place. After making eight pars to shoot 1-over on the front nine, Murphy was 4-over-par on the back nine.
HoTae Kim got off to a quick start and 1-under through three holes, but he made three double bogeys the rest of the round and finish in a tie for 114th-place at 7-over-par, 78.
Reece Nilsen is tied for 135th after ending the round at 10-over-par, 81.
Keiser University holds the lead after day one after they shot 5-under-par, 279. Coastal Georgia and Taylor University are each one shot off the lead in a tie for second.
Keiser’s Jack Dyer holds the individual lead with a 5-under, 66. Alec Dutkowski from Taylor is in second after shooting 67.
The Battlin’ Bears are in the afternoon session on Wednesday with Kim leading the team out off the No. 10 tee at 12:50 p.m. MT.
