Today marks the opening day of the second hosting of the St Andrews links Collegiate presented by TopGolf and World Wide Technology.
The tournament will take place from Monday the 14th of October to Wednesday the 16th of October. The format will be two days of stroke play on the Jubilee Course followed by match play on the Old Course. The teams playing in the invitational feature are Northwestern University, University of Arizona, University of St Andrews and Howard University.
University of Arizona’s Filip Jakubcik and Zach Pollo lead after both shooting 67 on the opening round. Their teammate Tiger Christensen is 2 shots behind as he finished his round shooting 69. Arizona’s Johnny Walker finished his round 1 over par after scoring a double bogey and a bogey on the back 9, going from 2-under to 1-over. Griffin Rhoads finished his day 3-over-par after he shot a 73 and his teammate Matěj Bača shot a 75, helping their team lead in the first day at 3-under-par.
Northwestern University are in second place after day 1. They are 4 shots behind the University of Arizona as they managed to finish the day 1-over-par. Archie Finnie leads the Northwestern University team after having what he called a “shaky start” with a double bogey on the second hole, followed by a bogey on the 4th hole which saw Finnie go 3-over across the first 4 holes.
“There’s so many good chances coming back [in on the back 9 holes]”
In a post-round interview Finnie told me that he managed to talk himself back into the game which helped him score birdies on the 5th, 11th, 12th, and 18th hole – finishing his round with a score of 69. His teammate, Niall Shiels-Donegan, also finishing his day with a 69. Cameron Adam started his round strong with a birdie on the 1st and 2nd hole going 2 under par early-on but an unfortunate bogey put him back up to 1-under on the front 9. A birdie on the 10th hole and bogeys on the 11th and 13th hole helped see Cameron Adam finish the opening round on even par. Their teammates Daniel Savard, Akshay Anand and Ethan Tseng all shot over par putting Northwestern University in second place overall at 1 over par.
Hosts University of St Andrews, are in third place after they finished their opening round 18 over par. Both Ethan Mangum and Judd Sundelson shot 1-over. Mangum scored two double bogeys on the front 9, however he shot three birdies, one on the front 9 and two on the back 9 finishing his day with a 71. Sundelson scored three birdies but bogeyed the 9th, 15th, 16th and 18th hole. He finished his day with a 71 as well.
Theo Anderson-Gannon started off strong, going 3 under through six holes. A bogey on the 7th meant that Anderson-Gannon was back to 2 under but recovered nicely with a birdie on the 8th. However, once again an unfortunate bogey on the 9th left him back at 2 under going into the back 9 where he shot a 39 putting an end to his round scoring 72. Joshua Kwon ended his day 6 over par from a bogey on the 6th, 13th, and 17th – with double bogeys on the 10th and 14th. Ollie George shot 8 over par, scoring a bogey on the 9th, 17th and the final hole, a double bogey on the 15th and a triple on the 11th. Charlie Reynolds shot 9 over after starting his day with a birdie on the first which helped him put himself 1 under through 4.
Howard University are in 4th place, sitting on 23 over par. Mathis leads his team finishing his day on 1 over par. His teammate, Bear Huff, behind him by 1 shot finishing his day 2 over par. Marcus Smith Jr. finished his day 4 over and one shot ahead of his teammate Mitchell Grey who is sitting at 5 over for the day. Kezaia Dimosi and Jonathan Mikanda both shot 11 over par for their team leaving them in last place for their team and on the player leader board.
However in golf, nothing is certain after round one. Scottish links golf is very different to what some of these teams are used to training in back in the USA, and with two more days left to play the competition is only just heating up.
