DAY ONE RESULTS | PHOTOS
NEW ORLEANS – Junior
Brady Bennett and freshman
Thomas Artigas excelled in cold and windy conditions during the first round of the LaTOUR Intercollegiate on Saturday afternoon in Mathews, La.
With winds hovering around 15 miles per hour and temperatures in the mid 40s,
Brady Bennett had the best afternoon for the Privateers. Playing the number three spot in the lineup the Zachary native finished his afternoon at one under par, tied for second place with Billy Basham of Eastern Kentucky and Maximo Portais of Jacksonville State. The trio are just two strokes back of Louisiana Tech's Sam Murphy.
Brady used birdies on holes 15 and 16 to give him a lead for a good portion of the day at two-under before going bogey, birdie, bogey to end the afternoon. Bennett's round of 71 is his second-best collegiate round at the LaTOUR Golf Club (eight rounds) after a 69 in the third round of the same event last season.
Artigas - playing as an independent - got off to a tremendous start sinking birdies on two of his first four holes on his way to an even-par finish tying him for fifth overall. Thomas, who was tied for the tournament lead with Bennett and Murphy after 14 holes, shot par or better on his first 10 holes. His round of 72 was better than any round he shot during the same event last year and five strokes better than his first-round at the LaTOUR Intercollegiate last season.
As a team the Privateers struggled with the cold windy conditions, leaving several putts on the table. UNO finished round one with a score of 310, tied for 11
th with Stephen F. Austin, and two strokes ahead of Central Arkansas. Brother Martin product
Dwayne Heron Jr., playing the number four spot, and Odessa College transfer
William Wargen, playing as an individual, both made their Privateer debuts.
Due to impending weather in the Mathews area, tomorrow's round of 18 holes will conclude the 36-hole tournament with the Privateers scheduled to tee off at 9:00 a.m. Fans can follow along on GolfStat.com or by following @PrivateersGolf on Twitter.
FIRST ROUND RESULTS
T11 New Orleans, U. of 310
T2
Brady Bennett (3) 71
T5
Thomas Artigas (ind) 72
T17
Florian Moosmeier (2) 75
T42
William Wargen (ind) 78
T60
Grayson Gilbert (1) 81
65
Dwayne Heron Jr. (4) 83
69
Nolan Lambert (5) 85
HEAD COACH JEFF LORIO
"Tough conditions out there today. I thought our attitude and approach was good, we just struggled on the greens. We had way too many three-putts …way too many missed opportunities on the greens. We will see what we are made of tomorrow. Hopefully, we will have a short memory and come out on fire."
(on Brady Bennett and Thomas Artigas contending for the individual championship)
"We have two guys chasing down an individual title, which hasn't happened in a while. It will be exciting to watch it unfold."
"I'm really proud of both of them. They were in the lead for most of the day and handled it well. Both made bogey on the last hole but other than that they played solidly the entire day. They have worked extremely hard and deserve a great tournament. Hopefully, their play has inspired the rest of the guys to come out tomorrow and have a great second round."
SOCIAL MEDIA
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