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| Hudson Swafford after holing a putt on hole 9 in round one. |
The Georgia men's golf team opened the NCAA Championships in fifth place on Tuesday at Karsten Creek Golf Club.
The Bulldogs, who are seeded 12th, fired a 3-over-par 291 in the first round and are tied for fifth with Ohio State. Georgia Tech snared the first-round lead with a 5-under 283.
After three rounds of stroke play, the top eight teams will advance to match play to determine the national champion. To a man, the Bulldogs said being in the top eight after the first round is mentally satisfying.
"We came out of the gate stronger, which was our goal," Georgia coach Chris Haack said. "We stumbled a little at the end. But overall, it was a good day. We put ourselves in a good position. But this golf course can jump up and bite you, so we've got to play well the next two days too."
"It feels good to be in the mix after the first day," said senior Harris English, who paced the Bulldogs with a 2-under 70. "The past couple of tournaments, we haven't gotten off to a good start. Our goal is to win stroke play, and we've got to keep that in mind and go after it tomorrow."
With English leading the way, the Bulldogs got off to a blistering start and spent much of the early part of the round atop the leaderboard. The Bulldogs played the front nine 4-under, including English's 5-under 31. He eagled the first hole and added three birdies on the front nine. He tacked on another birdie on No. 10 to start off at 6-under.
"What we did on the front nine shows that can we make birdies out here," English said. "We hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. It was definitely promising."
English is fifth in the individual race, three shots behind Georgia Tech's James White. Senior Hudson Swafford is ninth at 1-under 71, including an eagle on the par-5, 551-yard 18th. Sophomore T.J. Mitchell signed for 2-over 74, followed by senior Russell Henley at 4-over 76 and sophomore Bryden Macpherson at 10-over 82.
The Bulldogs will tee off on Wednesday at 9:10 a.m. Live results can be found at ncaa.com.
"We've got to stay patient," Haack said. "This is one of the toughest golf courses we'll play all year. We have to keep it in play and give ourselves a lot of chances. We have to avoid the big numbers."
