University of Houston
Rice Intercollegiate
Golf in Fourth Place at Rice Intercollegiate
2/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Feb. 15, 2010
Rice Intercollegiate First-Day Results 
HOUSTON - Fighting tough weather conditions, the University of Houston golf team rallied in the afternoon session to stand in a tie for fourth place after the first day of the 10th Annual Rice Intercollegiate presented by Srixon.
Battling wind with gusts up to 20 mph and cold temperatures early, the Cougars posted a team score of 315. However, the team rallied to better the morning round by nine strokes in the final 18 holes of the day and were tied with Nebraska and Northern Colorado at 621, on the 7,184-yard, par-72 course at Westwood Golf Club.
The Cougars were one of only six teams to better their team scores in the afternoon round, while the 9-stroke improvement was the third best by any team. Four of the five Cougars in the lineup bettered their scores from the morning round.
"The team fought well today. It was a really tough day, and it never really warmed up, but I was proud of guys for fighting through the conditions," Houston first-year head coach Jonathan Dismuke said. "We started off poorly. It was a struggle from the get-go, but the guys did a good job with damage control and managed what they could."
Rice stood atop the team leaderboard after the first 36 holes at 594, while Auburn ranked second at 602 and Pacific was in third place at 612. Florida Gulf Coast (622), Missouri State (625), Kansas (625) and New Orleans (626) rounded out the top-10 team leaders.
Individually, junior Matt Eschenburg led the Cougars with a first-day score of 153 to tie for 12th place. Eschenburg, a native of The Woodlands, Texas, leads the Cougars in scoring average this season and rebounded to shoot a 75 in the afternoon round.
Junior Clark Mitzner, the defending C-USA Golfer of the Week, was tied for 27th at 155, while redshirt freshman Joseph Reynolds was tied for 37th after firing a 157.
Other Cougars in action were freshman Jordan Rumora (161, t-53rd) and senior Jackie Lindsey (163, t-59th).
Rice's Christopher Brown and Michael Whitehead joined Auburn's Will McCurdy atop the individual leaderboard at 147. Rice' Michael Buttacavoli and Auburn's Cole Moreland were tied for fourth at 149.
The 54-hole event wraps up with the final 18 holes slated to tee off at 8:15 a.m.
UP NEXT
Following the Rice Intercollegiate, the Cougars return to action Monday when they compete at the J.L. Lewis Intercollegiate, hosted by Texas State at Wolfdancer Golf Club in Lost Pines, Texas.
That will be the second of four straight tournaments in the state of Texas to open the spring season.
Players Mentioned
