MSU tied for second after first round of NCAA men's golf regional at Eagle Eye
BATH TWP. — The Michigan State men's golf team is off to a great start in its long-awaited chance to host an NCAA golf regional.
The Spartans, who are hosting the 13-team NCAA Bath Regional at Eagle Eye Golf Club, sit in good position after Monday's opening round of the three-day event. MSU is tied for second place with Illinois after shooting a 12-under-par 272, six strokes behind first-place Georgia. Texas, the defending national champion, sits in fourth at 9-under, followed by Oregon and Little Rock at 5-under.
The top five teams in the regional will advance to the national championships, May 27-June 1 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The second and third rounds will be on Tuesday and Wednesday at Eagle Eye.
“It was a really good start,” MSU coach Casey Lubahn said. “We played 18 kind of rough, but other than that, they were steady, they were comfortable, made some putts and managed their golf ball really well.
“It was one day, but you can lose it on the first day and we put ourselves in an awesome position.”
Troy Taylor II, the fifth player in MSU's lineup, led the way for the Spartans, who had all five players finish under par. Taylor rolled up six birdies and finished with a 5-under 66 and is tied for second place overall with Caleb Manuel from Georgia and Oregon's Owen Avrit, just one stroke behind the leader, Georgia's Ben Van Wyk.
MSU's Ashton McCulloch shot a 3-under 68 and is tied for 12th place, while teammates Drew Hackett and Bradley Smithson both are at 2-under in a big group tied for 20th place. The other Spartan, August Meekhof, is just one stroke further back at 1-under.
The Spartans started on the back nine and Taylor got things going with a birdie on the par-4, 408-yard 10th hole. He then recorded pars on three consecutive holes (11-13) before notching birdies on three of his next four holes (14-17). Every member of the MSU starting lineup recorded birdies on the par-5 14th, but the Spartans shot a collective 3-over on the par-5 18th to close the first nine holes.
“I thought from the jump we were kind of aggressive,” said Lubahn. “Even though we were picking conservative spots, we were swinging aggressively.
“After the disasters on 18, we rebounded nicely, knew we were going to the easier nine, and were in a good position. They looked like the guys I expect them to look like.”
MSU, which is making its sixth NCAA regional appearance in the past eight years, entered as the No. 10 seed in the Bath Regional. Illinois was the top seed, followed by No. 2 Florida and No. 3 Texas.
MSU was originally scheduled to host a regional at Eagle Eye in the spring of 2020 before the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The school rebid to host and was granted the 2023 event.
— MSU Athletic Communications
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State men's golf: MSU 2nd after first day of NCAA regional
