Sept. 11, 1999
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ? The Purdue men?s golf team had a difficult first day at the Ridges Intercollegiate Tournament today, hosted by East Tennessee State University. Purdue currently stands in 15th place in the competitive tourney, ending the day with a 613, 37 over-par. The University of Oklahoma, who ended the afternoon with a 576, including a first-round 286, for even-par currently leads the 15-team field..
The competition for this year?s Bank of Tennessee/The Ridges Intercollegiate Tournament is stacked with a variety of talented teams. Of the teams competing, six are ranked in the MasterCard Collegiate Men?s Golf top-25 ranking. The Ridges defending champion, Clemson, entered the tourney as the nation's top-ranked team, and surprisingly is in seventh-place, after shooting a 36-hole score of 592, 16 over-par. Joining the Tigers are South Carolina (#10), North Carolina (#13), East Tennessee State (#18), North Carolina State (#20), Auburn (#22) and Texas Christian University (#24). Leading the pack for the Boilermakers is sophomore Lee Williamson. Williamson shot a first round 73, and ended the first day with a 151, landing him in 41st-place. He is tied seven other athletes at +7 for the afternoon, on the par 72, 7053-yard course. Following Williamson is freshman Chris Mayson. Mayson shot a first-round 72, but followed that with an 80, to finish the day at 152, +8. Mayson did, however, leave Saturday with his name on the leader board for certain categories. He nailed down one eagle, tying him with 13 other athletes to do that. Mayson also finished the day with 4.50, -4 par-five scoring.
Other Boilers competing include senior Ryan Cate who is in 57th-place (78-76-154), freshman Luke Epp, who closed out the day with a 156, 12 over-par for 65th-place and junior Chad Jones, who ended the day in 80th-place (81-83-164).