Mercer in 13th after Opening Round of Linger Longer Invitational

Sunday, March 19

Eatonton, Ga.

Mercer University

Linger Longer Invitational

Mercer in 13th after Opening Round of Linger Longer Invitational

3/19/2017 8:38:00 PM | Men's Golf

Results

By: Patrick T. Walsh

GREENSBORO, Ga. – Justin Connelly recorded a 1-under-par round Sunday as action teed off at the Linger Longer Invitational. The Bears finished the opening round in 13^th place, just two strokes behind nationally-ranked Middle Tennessee.

Connelly's 71 round places him in a tie for 21^st on the individual leaderboard with two rounds of play still to come.

MERCER SCORECARD

13.	Mercer	295	+7	295
T-21.	Justin Connelly	71	-1	71
T-50.	Stanton Schorr	74	+2	74
T-50.	Brennan Bogdanovich (I)	74	+2	74
T-50.	Jerry Ren	74	+2	74
T-63.	Kiko Rosete	76	+4	76
T-74.	Hayes Rule	79	+7	79

MERCER ON THE TEAM LEADERBOARD
Mercer finished the opening round at 7-over-par 295 and in 13^th place, just two strokes behind No. 45 Middle Tennessee. The Bears have a two stroke advantage over Charlotte. No. 4 Baylor leads the field at 14-under-par 274.

MERCER ON THE INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD
Justin Connelly leads Mercer on the individual leaderboard as he is tied for 21^st with several other golfers at 1-under-par. Three golfers – No. 57 Kyle Mueller (Michigan), Luke Moser (Troy) and Chris Guglielmo (Kennesaw State) are all tied for the individual lead at 6-under-par.

COACH KAYDEN'S TAKE
"We started off really well and really showed our potential the first six to eight holes. Unfortunately we had a stretch in the middle of the round where we made some doubles and hit some wild tee shots that got us into trouble. We finished 13^th out of 15 today, which is not where we want to be but we did tie our best score of the spring for 18-holes."

"I was proud of Justin Connelly for fighting back after a bogey-bogey-double stretch on 7-8-9 and was over par at that point. But he fought back and went into the clubhouse under par to lead us for today. That was an impressive round for him."

"We were able to count four scores at 76 or better which shows signs of improvement. We just have to be more consistent throughout a round and that will help us in future rounds in competition."

MONDAY'S PAIRINGS
Mercer will start on Hole No. 10 on Monday morning with tee times starting at 9:10 a.m. and going every 10 minutes. The Bears will be paired with Charlotte and VCU.

How to Follow the Bears:
For complete coverage of Mercer Men's Golf, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerGolf (Twitter) and @MercerBears (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.