April 19, 2009

FLORENCE, S.C. - The Samford University men's golf team opened play in the 2009 Southern Conference championships Sunday and finished the first round of action with a team score of 302 to move into 10th place at the Country Club of South Carolina.

Senior Ian Cutting paced Samford with an 18-hole score of 74 to claim a tie for 23rd place. The Bulldogs' Bobby Baird followed with a 75, while Jeremy Cox turned in a 76. Senior Andrew Villarreal fired a 77 on Sunday and Houston Hough posted an 80.

Chattanooga shot an 11-under par 277 to grab the first round lead at the prestigious three-day postseason event.

Georgia Southern's Drew Lethem shot the low round of the day with a six-under par 66. The senior, who teed off on the 10th hole, put together a five-hole stretch of four birdies and an eagle from 17 through hole 3 to position himself atop the leaderboard.

Chattanooga, the two-time defending champion of the event, was led by junior Derek Rende with a 67 (-5) while Fredrik Qvicker and Stephan Jaeger each shot three-under par 69.

Georgia Southern finished one stroke behind Chattanooga at 278 (-10) as the Eagles' top four scorers were all under par on the round.

Western Carolina and Furman (286) sit in a tie for third place following round one while College of Charleston (293) and UNC Greensboro (293) are tied for fifth and Elon (295) occupies seventh.

A total of 13 golfers finished under par for the round with the quintet of Chattanooga's Qvicker and Jaeger, Western Carolina's Ricky Stout and Tanner Briele and College of Charleston's Tim Tang following Lethem and Rende at 67 (-3).

Round two of the championship begins Monday morning at 8 a.m. ET with results updated every three holes at www.golfstatresults.com.