McNamara set to finish season in style
Limerickman Cian McNamara has put himself in contention for American collegiate golf’s highest prize heading into Thursday’s second round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Championship in Oregon.
McNamara, a freshman at East Tennessee State University, overshadowed his higher ranked team-mates Rhys Davies of Wales and Lisburn’s Gareth Shaw with a season’s best four-under-par round of 68 at the 7,630-yard Crosswater Golf Club, from a difficult tee time going off last in the afternoon.
“It’s been a disappointing year for me, really, so I just came out this week realising I was going to stay relaxed because there are only four more rounds left this season,” said McNamara, whose bogey-free round matched his career low.
“For some reason I was more laid back, and it definitely helped me today. There’s still a lot of work to be done here, but today was positive because we had to wait around forever and we still did OK.”
McNamara’s head coach at ETSU, Fred Warren was certainly pleased, saying: “Cian played great and it was one of his best rounds.”
Niall Turner is also well placed following the opening round as America’s best collegiate golfers began the battle for national supremacy.
The Corkman, a junior at the University of Minnesota, fired a first round, one-under-par 71, recovering from early bogeys at holes three and six to rally with three birdies in his round, leaving him tied for 28th.
He was one of two Gophers to finish under par as the Minnesota team ended the day tied with Arizona State in 11th place, 10 strokes off the lead held by Wake Forest.
McNamara’s colleague Shaw was a further shot back on level par, in a tie for 51st individually, with his ETSU team ending the day in 10th with a team total of 286, two under par.
Wake Forest, coached by Jerry Haas, the brother of newly crowned US Senior PGA champion Jay Haas, posted a team total of 11-under 277 and go into today’s second round as three-shot leaders over UCLA.
On the individual leaderboard, the Wake Forest’s Kyle Reifers is at 7-under and leads by one over Oklahoma State’s Spaniard Pablo Martin and Southern California’s Taylor Wood.
All 156 players are competing over 54 holes before Saturday's final round is cut to the top 15 teams and top six individuals not on an advancing team.
Georgia, the defending team champion, is in danger of early elimination. They got off to a poor start in defence of their title and were 16 shots back of the lead, at a collective +5.
