James Byrne has disappointing

78 in NCAA Div 1 championship

Banchory's James Byrne, a student at Arizona State University and the only Scot in the field for the season-ending American college golf circuit highlight, the NCAA Division 1 championship, shot a disappointing opening round of 78 over a long Kampen course (7450yd, par 72) at the Brick Boilermaker Golf Complex at West Layfayette, Indiania (Wednesday, USA time).
James, pictured righy by Cal Carson Golf Agency (all rights reserved), birdied two long holes, the fourth and the sixth, but had a double bogey 5 at the short 17th and also dropped shots at the fifth, seventh, ninth, 11th, 12th and 18th in halves of 37 and 41.
The 19-year-old is in joint 70th place in a top-class field of 155 players behind Kevin Chappell (UCLA), the pacemaker on three-under-par 69.

James's dad Paul can give us an insight into the day's play:

Spoke to James last night. He said it was the most difficult test he’s faced on a golf course! Nevertheless, he and his team felt they stuck in there reasonably well given the very tough conditions. The wind speed dropped quite a bit for the p.m.starters, however this didn’t seem to have a big affect on the team scores.

The Golfweek team ref http://www.golfweek.com/story/balicki-ncaa-rough-052808 are saying that the course is set up as challenging as any major. Even with the monster length, at just under 7500 yards, the fairways are tight and the first cut of rough around the fairways and greens is 5 inches and waist high a few yards in. After his practice round, James had forecast that the average score for the field in round 1 would be 77 – It was 78.9!

ASU tee off today in the afternoon group, unfortunately they won’t have a weather advantage, as the wind speed isn’t expected to get much above 10 mph all day. However, with three rounds to go, the guys will be going all out to catch the leaders. After the third round, only the top 15 teams will go forward to play the final round. ASU are currently tied for 17th but only 5 shots back from 10th place. We can expect to see many changes in team positions as the tournament progresses. With the calmer weather I expect scores will be marginally better but the course will be taking few prisoners.

Next year the tournament format is to be changed. After three rounds the top teams will play each other in matchplay to find the winning team (the individual winner being announced after round 3). They haven’t decided yet but they will probably use a modified matchplay/strokeplay format to allow the players to play all 18 holes. The matchplay rounds are to be televised I believe. PAUL BYRNE

INDIVIDUAL SCORES

Par 72
69 Kevin Chappell (UCLA).
70 David Markie (Kent State), Tim Sluiter (Southern California).
72 Billy Horschel (Florida), Joel Sjoholm (Georgia State), Kyle Stanley (Clemson).
73 Trent Leon (Oklahoma State), Webb Simpson (Wake Forest), Hudson Swafford (Georgia).
74 Joey Benedetti (Oregon), Zach Bixler (Washington), Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State), Aaron Goldberger (San Diego State), Russell Henley (Georgia), Rory Hie (Southern California), Mark Johnson(Oklahoma State), Scott Langley (Illinois), Ben Martin (Clemson), Gareth Shaw (East Tennessee State), Derek Tolan (Colorado),Stefan Wiedergruen (Charlotte).
Other scores:
75 Rhys Enoch (East Tennessee State) (jt 23rd).
78 James Byrne (Arizona State) (jt 70th).
81 Cian McNamara (East Tennessee State) (jt 114th).
83 Seamus Power (East Tennessee State) (jt 126th).
85 Simon Doherty (East Tennessee State) (jt 14th).
LEADING TEAMS
297 Southern California, UCLA.
298 Oklahoma State.
301 Clemson, Kent State.
302 Illinois, Florida.
303 Georgia.
305 Washington.
306 Auburn, Charlotte.
Other total:
313 East Tennessee State (jt 22nd of 30 teams).