FIGHTING FIT FINDLAY PLAYS

HIS PART IN EAST

TENNESSEE STATE JOY DAY

Fraserburgh teenager Jordan Findlay played his part in a brilliant performance by the East Tennessee State University golf team in the Puerto Rico Classic at Rio Mar Golf Club on the Caribbean island on Sunday.
Findlay, pictured right, ended up in hospital when he was taken off the course feeling ill in his last event in Arizona at the end of January. His strength had been drained by a bout of pneumonia.
The 18-year-old former British boys champion from the Broch, a second-year student, showed he was fighting fit again with a one-under-par score of 71 over the 6,902yd course. That put him in a share of 24th place.
Team-mates Rhys Davies, the Edinburgh-born Welshman and Walker Cup player, and Limerick’s Cian McNamara shared the lead on 64, McNamara was out in 34 and home in 31, Davies reversing these outsanding figures.
Two other Irish students, freshman Seamus Power from Waterford and Gareth Shaw (Lisburn) completed the joy day for East Tennessee State with returns of 72 and 76 respectively.
The team, with a 15-under-par tally of 273 – the second lowest in East Tennessee State University golf programme history - surged six shots clear of an 18-team field containing most of the top American college players.
LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES
Par 72
65 Cian McNamara (East Tennessee State) 34-31, Rhys Davies (East Tennessee State) 31-34.
68 Jonathan Moore (Oklahoma State 34-34, Robert Castro (Georgia Tech) 32-36, Matthew Savage (Stanford) 31-37, Brendon Todd (Georgia) 34-34.
Other scores:
71 Jordan Findlay (East Tennessee State) 36-35 (jt 24th).
72 Seamus Power (East Tennessee State) 35-37 (jt 38th).
76 Gareth Shaw (East Tennessee State) 35-41 (jt 68th).
LEADING TEAMS
273 East Tennessee State.
279 Georgia.
281 Stanford.
282 Oklahoma State.
283 Clemson.