The Valparaiso University men's golf team finished Sunday's first round in the top five out of 13 on the team leaderboard at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate, hosted by South Alabama at the par-71, 7239-yard Magnolia Grove Falls Course in Mobile, Ala. Senior
Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) is among the tournament's individual leaders.
How It Happened
- Delisanti carded a 67 (-4) on the first day of the tournament, putting himself in a tie for fifth of 78. He is three strokes behind South Alabama's Hugo Thyr, who holds the top spot at seven under. Delisanti birdied six of the 18 holes in the opening round, tied for the third most birdies in the field.
- Sophomore Elliot Lee (Tillamook, Ore. / Tillamook) also finished Day 1 in the top 20 after carding a 72 (+1). He is tied for 20th. Lee's round featured a pair of birdies.
- Senior Sam Booth (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) turned in a 73 (+2) on the opening day of action. He had a pair of birdies in Round 1.
- The Beacons posted a team score of 289 (+5). South Alabama is atop the team leaderboard at 276.
Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring
"We have categories and metrics that are important to us every round that we play, so we pay close attention and make our adjustments. I was pleased with our Par-3 scoring, with the team playing the Par 3s at four over par for the round. We only had one birdie on the Par 3s, but we hit a lot of good iron shots and made a bunch of quality pars. The three Par 5s represent three of the easiest holes on the course, so the four under with only six birdies just wasn't good enough today. We need to take better advantage of those scoring opportunities. We hit 75 percent of our fairways, which was terrific off the tee box. We only hit 59 percent of our fairways, so our approach shots to the green need to get a lot better, including proximity to the hole."
"Anthony had six birdies for the round and he literally hit the hole on five other attempts for birdie. His ball-striking was tremendous, with his strokes-gained off the tee and with his approach shots to the green at +4.78. Elliot had a solid short game day, with 4/4 sand saves and 28 total putts.
Sam Booth hit 14 out of 18 greens and Rob hit 12 out of 14 fairways. We're going to need to putt a lot better tomorrow since we left a lot of birdie opportunities out there and we missed six putts inside of five feet."
Up Next
The Mobile Bay Intercollegiate will continue on Monday with the second day of the three-day event. A link to live scoring via Clippd is available on ValpoAthletics.com.
