The men’s golf team escaped from chilly Moscow and all the snow this week, to go down to Princeville, Hawaii, where temperatures were in the 80s on Monday.
As of Monday night, the Vandals sat in a tie for 13th place, out an 18 team field, in the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational. Collectively as a team, they shot a 292. Mississippi State was in first place with a 274 in the first round and three players in the top 20.
Leading the way for the Vandals was the star freshman from British Columbia, Canada, Jared du Toit, who was tied for eighth with a 4-under-par 68. As for the rest of the Vandals, they finished as follows with Ryan Porch tied for 28th with a 1-under-par 71, Rylee Iacolucci tied for 75th with a 4-over-par 76 and both Aaron Cockerill and Sean McMullen tied for 82nd with a 5-over-par 77.
The Vandals had three first year players leading their team in scoring in the first round, with two upper classmen rounding out the bottom. With the production from the younger guys, the men’s golf team will be looking to make a move up the leader board in the final two rounds of play.
Play will finish up on Wednesday and the forecast for the rest of the tournament calls for showers, with temperatures in the mid to upper 70s, which could end up benefiting the boys from the rainy Northwest. As for the rest of the field, they may not have played in rainy conditions like the Vandals have grown used to up here in Idaho.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]