2014 NCAA Men's Golf - Eugene regional

[RoyalShock]

Getting started this morning.

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[WuDrWu]

Really early, but the Shocks are off to a steady start with the notable exception of losing their one car safety margin already. Alec Heine is struggling mightily and hasn't even managed a single par in his first 4 holes and sits +5. Hopefully it won't matter, but you hate to have all the pressure firmly placed on the other 4 so early in the round.

[RoyalShock]

Really early, but the Shocks are off to a steady start with the notable exception of losing their one car safety margin already. Alec Heine is struggling mightily and hasn't even managed a single par in his first 4 holes and sits +5. Hopefully it won't matter, but you hate to have all the pressure firmly placed on the other 4 so early in the round.

Foreshadowing.

Max Mason with consecutive doubles.

[1972Shocker]

You won't often see a scorecard as ugly a Alec's (although if it was my score card I would be having a decent day).

He has 8 bogies, a double bogey and a triple bogey through 12 holes with 1 par and 1 birdie for 12-over. Typical day for me, but I'm sure somewhat of a rarity for Alex.

As @WuDrWu stated that eliminates any margin of error for Alec's teammates.

Sounds like this year has been somewhat a challenge for Coach Jones. From the tone of the article in Eagle this year has not gone smoothly at all.

Of particular note is that Senior Calvin Pearson, who played 10 events this year, is not in the lineup in the regionals and Freshman Max Mason who played in only 1 Tournament this year replaced him. Maybe Calvin is injured but it could be something else as Coach Jones talked about a lot of personal and off-the-course issues with this team. Makes you wonder also if Alec is mentally prepared to play the way his round is going today.

OTOH, maybe Max just got hot at the end of the year and has beat Calvin out for a spot in the regional line-up.

[1972Shocker]

The Top 5 teams and the low individual not a member of those 5 teams advance to the National Championship Tournament at Prairie Dunes.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks finished Round 1 at 295 (+15) and in an 8th place tie with Chattanooga and Liberty. Improtantly, the Shocks are still very much in the hunt as they only trail 5th place Oregon by 6 strokes which is not all that much in the collegiate game although they will have to pick up their game a little over the final 2 rounds to have a chance.

Shocks were lead by Jr. Louis Cohen Boyer (72, +2), Sr. Chandler Rusk (73, +3), Fr. Grant Bennett (74, +4) and Fr. Max Mason (76, +6).

So. Alec Heinen had the throw away score of the day at 84 (+14). Very out of character for Alec considering he averaged 75.1 over 36 competitive rounds this year. Alec did finish his final 6 holes at +2 so perhaps he helped his psyche out a little and will be able to snap back tomorrow.

All-in-all you have to be pretty pleased with Max Mason's 6-over effort today considering it was only his 4th competitive round as a collegian. With Alex blowing up Max needed to contribute a decent score and he did. Heck Max doesn't even have a bio on goShockers.com.

Chandler Rusk played his last nine holes (Nos. 1 thru 9) in 1-under after going out +4 on the back nine.

LCB stumbled a little down the stretch as he bogeyed 2 of his last 3. (The Shocks started on the 10th hole and finished on #9 today).

[1972Shocker]

Missouri shot a -7 in its regional at Columbia at the The Club at Old Hawthorne. Still they trail Oklahoma State by 9 shots as the Cowboys plundered the course for a 16-under 272. Holy Cowboy is right. OSU posted individual rounds of -7, -5, -2 and -2. That is not something you see very often in college golf.

The 9th place team in that regional is +6 so it would seem to indicate the course may not be up to championship standards. The top 5 teams from that region will get an interesting contrast when they go to Prairie Dunes.

The Raleigh Regional may be even more receptive to scoring. They aren't finished because rain caused completion of the round to be postponed until tomorrow. The low 6 teams about 2/3rd through Round 1 are a combined 38-under par.

The toughest scoring so far seems to be at the Sugar Grove (IL) regional. #4 ranked Cal I believe is the top seed. In a lead-in article about the regional the Daily Californian joked that the population of Sugar Grove was less than the undergrad enrollment at Cal. After round 1 Cal is in 7th place at 17-over, 13 shots behind the leader, UAB.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks starting on hole #10 again today. Alec Heinen opens with a par after starting off with a double-bogey on 10 yesterday. BTW, Alec was recently selected to the MVC Scholar Athlete 1st team. He has a 3.8 GPA in accounting. I guess that officially makes him a smart Alec.

Alec bogeyed No. 11. I have a feeling we may need a decent score from Alec today as inexperienced Freshman Max Mason has opened with back-to-back bogies.

That may not have has Alec has a bogeyed #12. So the Shocks have Alec & Max have bogeyed 4 of 5 holes out of the chute. We need one of these guys to start stringing together some pars.

[1972Shocker]

Grant Bennett with a birdie 2 on 12, but LCB offsets that with an opening bogey.

LCB rebounds with a Birdie on 11, but a bogey on the par 5 13th.

[1972Shocker]

Max and Alex have reversed roles today as Max shot 9-over par on his first 9 holes with only 1 par matching Alec's 9-over from Round 1.

Alec is better today shooting a 4-over on his first 9 vs the 3-over Max put up in Round 1.

Still we lost our safety net and the Shocks are paying for it. LCB has double-bogeyed the 16th and Chandler has double-bogeyed the 18th.

The Shocks are +12 on their first 9 holes today vs +7 in Round 1. More importantly they have fallen from 6 strokes out of 5th place to 14 strokes back with 5 teams in between them and the 5th place team.

With the issues we are having at the bottom of the lineup it appears the Shockers chances of playing at Prairie Dunes in the NCAA Championships are at best very slim.

[1972Shocker]

Now Alec has started the second 9 bogey, bogey, double-bogey and Chandler Rusk records a second straight double bogey his 1sdt hole of the second nine. I think I can safely call the Shockers out of contention for a Top 5 finish as the Shocks have fallen 20 strokes behind 5th place North Florida.

[NCAABound]

Not looking good. They are already +18 on the round today...+33 total. 11th place currently.

[NCAABound]

In a free-fall. +20 for today and +35 overall.

Now just hope they don't finish last. Looks like it might happen if they can't stop the bleeding.

[Kung Wu]

Can any of these guys swing a baseball bat?

[1972Shocker]

Can any of these guys swing a baseball bat?

Strictly low ball hitters.