Mercer University
Seminole Intercollegiate
Rule and Mercer Shine in Opening Round of Seminole Intercollegiate
3/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Mercer senior Trey Rule fired his second-straight 5-under-par 67 to headline the men's golf team in Friday's opening round of the Seminole Intercollegiate. The Bears wrapped up the first day of action in third place with a season-best round of 282.
"The guys had a tremendous start to the tournament," said head coach Kirk Kayden. "We made plenty of good decisions in our golf course management today. It was a total team effort that was made even better with the fact that many of the guys had a positive finish their round."
Mercer moves to Saturday's second round of action just one stroke back of second-place Louisville in a tournament that features four top-10 programs and seven teams inside the Golfweek.com top 40. The Bears had all five players record scores of 76 or lower for the first time since accomplishing the feat in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Raleigh Regional.
Rule set the stage for an incredible day with an eagle on his first hole, before wrapping up the round in a tie for second place on the leaderboard. The Eatonton, Ga. native had another unblemished scorecard with three birdies and one eagle.
Emmanuel Kountakis carded a team-best five birdies on Friday, finishing with a 2-under 70 to close in a tie for 15th. Sean Smothers finished one stroke behind in 20th place with a 1-under 71, while Jerry Ren and Jeffrey Heinicka, Jr. fired scores of 74 and 76 respectively.
The Bears return to action tomorrow morning, as they tee off with the top two teams, ETSU and Louisville, starting at 10:10 a.m. Click here for live scoring.
"We are looking forward to tomorrow and taking it one shot at time as we try to continue to get better and move up in the team standings," added Kayden.
Players Mentioned
