KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. - Round one of the Men’s & Women’s Sunshine State Conference Golf Championships is completed. Overcast skies and wind gust kept the heat away and scoring high on Sunday, April 17th. Play resumes from Crandon Golf at Key Biscayne on Monday, April 18th at 8:30 a.m. The 2016 event is hosted by Barry University.
Round 2 Pairings: Men | Women (Monday, April 18th)
2016 Golf Championship Central | Key Biscayne Weather for April 18th
Men’s Round 1 Recap
Florida Southern’s John Coultas (So., Valrico, Fla.) shot a first round 69 to lead the field on Day 1. Coultas’ 4-under on par-5’s during Round 1 vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard. Martin Cancino (Jr. Chicuro, Chile) of Lynn sits in second with a 2-under 70. Cancino was only one of two golfers to shoot even on par-4’s (J. Van de Flierdt - Rollins). Ryan Gendron (Jr., Tampa, Fla.) of Saint Leo carded a 1-under 71 following a 33 on the front nine. In fourth place is Niclas Weiland (Fr., Linkoping, Sweden) of Barry with a 73. Lynn’s Jose Andres Miranda (Sr., Quito, Ecuador) and Nova Southeastern's Juan Jose Guerra are tied for fifth with 74’s.
Individual Full Leaderboard - Day 1
Saint Leo and Lynn are tied in the team race at 298. The Lions and Fighting Knights both have four golfers within the Top-16 participants after Day 1. Nova Southeastern and Florida Southern are tied for third place at 306. Florida Tech and Barry share fifth place with 308’s.
Team Leaderboard - Day 1
Men’s Tournament Notes
Sunday’s average score was 79.98, which is the highest first round mean score since the tournament grew to nine teams playing 54-holes in 2005. It is the second highest scoring round in SSC tournament history to 2012’s third round average of 81.73. The 2012 tournament took place at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton.
Making the tournament the round more difficult were wind gusts up to 29-mph in the late morning. Golfers found the par-3 No. 8 and par-4 No. 9 the most challenging on Sunday. Both holes played 0.80 shots over average and yielded 11 scores worse than bogey. Hole No. 4 proved to be the third most difficult hole on course sunday. The par-5 attributed to eight double bogies.
Five eagles were recorded on Sunday, all on par-5’s. The two least difficult holes during the round were No. 18 and No. 14, both relinquished two eagles. Saint Leo as a team was 7-under in par-5 scoring. All five eagles came from golfers on different teams.
VanDerLaan (FSC), Coultas (FSC), Mirada (LU), Mansel (NSU), Gomez (NSU), and Savoie (SLU) look to join an elite group of 30 golfers who have finished Top-5 at the SSC championship multiple times.
Round 1 Course Stats | In-Depth Tournament History
Women’s Round 1 Recap
Round 1 concluded with a four-way tie at 76. Maria Coors (Saint Leo, Jr., Gross-Zimmern, Germany), Amanda Jakobsson (Saint Leo, So., Gothenberg, Sweden), Abbey Williams (Florida Southern, Fr., Marietta, Ga.) and Paola Ortiz (Florida Tech, Fr., Morelia, Mexico ) all shot 4-over to conclude Day 1. Florida Tech’s Felicia Leftinger (Sr., Trollhattan, Sweden) and Florida Southern’s Britta Bernth (Jr., Greenville, Mich.) round out the Top-5 tied at 77.
Individual Full Leaderboard - Day 1
Florida Tech shot 311 on Day 1 as a team to hold the early lead. The Panthers placed three in the Top-7 participants after Round 1. Florida Southern and Saint Leo are tied for second place at 315. The Moccasins and the Lions place two golfers each in the Top-5.
Team Leaderboard - Day 1
Women’s Tournament Notes
Sunday’s round marks the first time since 2009 (Lake Region - Winter Haven, Fla.) where four golfers have shared the lead after Day 1. The average score of Round 1 was 82.80, which is the highest since the 88.17 during the third round of the 2012 championship (The Concession - Bradenton, Fla.).
Wind gusts up to 29-mph in the late morning made the course tougher for the ladies. Golfers found the par-4 No. 7 and par-5 No. 10 the most challenging. Both holes played 1.07 shots over average and yielded 13 scores worse than bogey.
Chantry (NSU), Ortiz (FIT), and Ruiz (NSU) were the only three under par on par-3’s Sunday. Coors (SLU), Morahan (UT), and Williams (FSC) averaged a field-leading 4.80 on par-5’s. Dulman (RC) was the only golfer to go under par on par-4’s (-1).
Past two individual champions Marie Coors (SLU) and Nicole Ferre (BU) are joined by a significant group of athletes looking to join 22 golfers before them who have finished Top-5 at the SSC championship two or more times. Golfers in the hunt this year are: Coors, Ferre, Bertuccioli (BU), Lellyo (RC), Dulman (RC), Leadbetter (RC), Freedman (NSU), and Jakobsson (SLU).
Round 1 Course Stats | In-Depth Tournament History