WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Scoring was tough across the board at Williamsburg Golf Club on Monday. The Bridgewater College men's golf team started slow in the cold, drizzly conditions, but found some momentum to finish the first round of the Glenn Heath Memorial Tournament in fifth place among fifteen teams.
The Eagles, starting on holes #8 through #11 in a shotgun start, primarily played the back-nine first and were collectively 21 shots over par on that side. But upon turning to the front nine, they made nine birdies and finished that side eleven shots better, posting a team score of 322. The squad is just eight shots off the lead despite playing without their leading scorer, senior Luke Hill, who could not miss classes this week.
Leading the way for Bridgewater was sophomore Ronald Uszenski, who battled through six 3-putts on the slick, undulated greens to post 78. On a wintry day, Uszenski's score put him inside the top-10 among 88 players. He had four birdies on the day, including the 12th and 18th holes, where his approach shots were inside of three feet.
Senior Jake Norby also had at least four 3-putts, but he also scrambled effectively and had difficult par-saves on the 2nd, 8th, 12th, and 15th holes. His total of 81 puts him in a tie for 21st place.
Also tied for 21st with a matching 81, freshman Jason Spaar drove the ball beautifully, but left a few approaches on the wrong side of the hole. Like the rest of the team, Spaar finished strong, dropping birdie putts on three of his final seven holes, including the final two.
Senior Jeremy Pannebaker followed the team trend- late in the round he hit his approach within four feet on #6 and made birdie, then dropped a 12-footer on the par-5 7th hole. He burned the edge on the 8th going for three birdies in a row. Pannebaker finished the round with a 10-over score of 82.
Senior Ocean Armstrong ran into trouble on the par-5 16th hole and took ten strokes to get down, leading to a total of 84 on the round. Armstrong birdied two of his final four holes.
Playing as an individual, junior Eugene Dillon shot 91.
With one round to play, the Eagles trail leaders Randolph Macon by eight shots. "We have not hit our groove yet this spring," said head coach John Rogers, "and today's score is not what we expect, but the guys battled hard to stay competitive. Our trend this season has been to play streaky golf, and I hope we get to see what this squad can do when we go all eighteen holes. To finish at or near the top of this leaderboard while playing without one of our leaders would be a great achievement."
Play resumes on Tuesday at 9 a.m.
