Redshirt senior Ryan Somerville (Aurora, Ontario / Aurora) led the Valparaiso University men's golf team on the first day of the Kemper Lakes Intercollegiate, hosted by Belmont at the par-72, 7217-yard Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Long Grove, Ill. The teams played the first 36 holes of the 54-hole tournament on Monday.
 
How It Happened

• Somerville carded a 72 (E) in Round 1, the best round of the day by a Beacon. He hit par or better on 17 of his 18 holes in the first round. He leads the team and is tied for 24^th of 78 overall at 153 through 36 holes.
• Freshman Tyler Samaan (Elgin, Ill. / Burlington) and senior Elliot Lee (Tillamook, Ore. / Tillamook) tied for the team's best Round-2 score at 78.
• Junior Rob Politza (Lemont, Ill. / Lemont Township), who eagled the par-5 fourth hole in Round 2, is tied with Samaan for second on the team and 30^th overall at 155 through two rounds.
• The Beacons are seventh of 12 on the team leaderboard at 620 (304-316). Drake and South Dakota are tied for the team lead at 584, while Drake's Jake Weissenburger sits atop the player leaderboard with a 7-under 137.

Thoughts From Head Coach Dave Gring
"This is one of the most challenging golf courses that we will play all season. The 1989 PGA Championship was held on this golf course, and it continues to be an excellent test for all of the players. The golf course will penalize you when you're out of position and trying to recover. That was our situation for most of today, missing fairways and greens and trying to recover for a par on the hole. We only hit 52% of our greens in regulation and 46% of our fairways. Our shot execution simply was not sharp today, and we are going to have to make better decisions on the golf course as to where we are missing shots into fairways and greens."
 
"The team has been resilient and they have demonstrated resolve, going into our final tournament round in our first three events. We are going to need to bounce back and play well tomorrow for our final round. We have played the golf course three times in the past two days, so we know where we need to hit the ball off the tee and into the greens. The attitudes by our players have still been good and we are looking forward to getting after the golf course tomorrow."
 
Up Next
The Beacons will play the third and final round of the event on Tuesday. A link to live scoring via Clippd is available on ValpoAthletics.com.