FSU men’s golf lead after day one

The opening round of the NCAA Golf Tallahassee Regional featured plenty of birdies, a rare eagle, and a dose of rain and windy conditions at Seminole Legacy Golf Club.

Through it all, Florida State men’s golf sits atop the leaderboard with a combined team score of -14, seven strokes ahead of second place. Star junior Luke Clanton leads the individual leaderboard after posting the low round of the day, a six-under 66.

All five Seminoles shot in red figures, with sophomore Tyler Weaver tied in fourth place at -4, sophomore Carson Brewer and graduate student Gray Albright both at -2, and junior Jack Bigham at -1 to round the Seminoles out behind Clanton.

“I’m just glad they are playing well. We had five guys shoot under par,” FSU head coach Trey Jones said. “The momentum that they had coming in here, to see it continue. To play the kind of round they did, where we only made five bogeys, and on this golf course it’s really, really hard to do.”

“They competed well, they’re prepared. For them to come out and do that, it shows a lot about them.”

The Seminoles carded 18 birdies, and Clanton recorded an eagle on the fourteenth hole. He hit his approach shot within 10 feet of the hole, cutting it through the wind and onto the tricky greens at Seminole Legacy, before sinking his putt.

It was the moment that gave Clanton the individual lead of the tournament, with his eagle on 14 followed by four consecutive pars to end the road at -6.

“I wasn’t even trying to go after that pin with that club. Lucky enough it kinda of tugged it a little bit, and I got away with it,” Clanton said. “To get out there and shoot six under on that golf course, it’s really good.”

One of FSU’s biggest moments of the day was a pair of back-to-back birdies on holes 16 and 17 from Bigham. After ending the front nine one over par, Bigham carded the pair of birdies to end his round one under par and give the Seminoles a boost.

Both Clanton and Brewer went bogey-free on the day, two of only three bogey-free rounds, joined by New Mexico’s Clark Sonnenberg.

“It felt good, it was a pretty steady day,” Brewer said. “There wasn’t much up or down to the round, it was pretty flat. A lot of middle of the greens, a lot of fairways.

“Just made it as stress-free as possible.”

NCAA Tallahassee Regional top 5 on the leaderboard

Team scores are compiled by the top 4 scorers from each team

Florida State – 1st place -14

• Luke Clanton -6
• Tyler Weaver -4
• Carson Brewer -2
• Gray Albright -2
• Jack Bigham -2

Notre Dame – 2nd place -7

• Jacob Modleski -5
• Christopher Bagnall -1
• Mike Qiu -1
• Rocco Salvitti – even par
• Nate Stevens +2

Ole Miss – 3rd place -6

• Kye Meeks -4
• Michael La Sasso -2
• Cameron Tankersley – even par
• Tom Fischer – even par
• Cohen Trolio +3

New Mexico State – tied 4th place -3

• Wyatt Provence -3
• Clark Sonnenberg -1
• Carson Herron – even par
• Oliver Cage +1
• Mesa Falleur +1

Augusta – tied 4th place

• Bo Blanchard -4
• Pieter Rossouw -3
• Stefan Jacobs +1
• Dean Wilken +3
• Chapman Barnett +7

Liam Rooney covers Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney