SAINT LEO, Fla. – With play halted during the second round of the Saint Leo Invitational on Monday, the Anderson University men's golf team finds itself tied for 13th place.
"Today was just one of those days," said Anderson assistant coach Denton Moore. "We didn't execute some really simple things that we have been taking care of easily as of late. It was just a chip ran out to far here, miss a short put there, not hitting wedges from 120 and in close enough. It was just a lot of small things that added up to a very average first round. When you are down here in Florida in elite fields, you just can't have those days.
The 18-team field features 15 of the top-25 teams in the nation, including five of the top-10 teams in the country.
Seventeenth-ranked Saint Leo, which won the event a year ago, and No. 8 Lynn are tied atop the team leaderboard, with second-ranked Keiser two shots behind in third place. Nova Southeastern holds the fourth slot, while No. 3 Barry and Lee are deadlocked in fifth place. No. 5 Columbus State and Mount Olive are seventh and eighth, respectively. No. 23 Valdosta State and Barton are tied for ninth, with 13th-ranked Florida Southern in 11th place.
Tampa, No. 7 Anderson, Hillsdale, Palm Beach Atlantic, Embry-Riddle, Eckerd and Kentucky Wesleyan round out the field.
Individually, Lynn's Agustin Errazuriz leads Saint Leo's Oliver Lilliedahl by one shot, with teammate Eloy Vigil just two shots off the pace in the third spot.
Freshman Calahan Keever paced the Trojans with a 1-under-par 132 and sits in a tie for 26th through 15 holes, while sophomore Reece Coleman and freshman Daniel Coker are tied for 40th after carding 1-over 134s. Sophomore Anthony Sutton (137) is tied for 59th, with senior Jake Miller in a tie for 68th.
"The guys really fought and grinded hard all day," added Moore. "I was proud of that. The two freshmen (Keever and Coker) were steady. It was good to have (Anthony) Sutton back. He shook off some early tournament rust and started to come on late. Reece (Coleman) and Jake (Miller) were solid. We just never built any momentum. The 294 first round should have and needed to be 288. We hit it plenty good enough to do that. The second round we are -1 as a team with three holes to go, so, I'm hoping we can finish that round strong and keep it under par. Then we will just have to battle hard in the third round and see how far we can climb up the board. I was proud of the effort, it just honestly wasn't our day today. This is a resilient group though, and I feel really good about tomorrow."
Play is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. with a shotgun start.
