Spiders sixth at tightly-packed Atlantic 10 Championship
04/29/2022 | Men's Golf
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – After the first round of the A-10 Men's Golf Championship, the Richmond Spiders find themselves both in the middle of the pack as well as near the top of the leaderboard. Richmond is in sixth place in the 11-team field at 4-over par, but the Spiders are just one shot behind the two teams tied for fourth – George Mason and St. Bonaventure – and eight shots behind first-round leader VCU.
"I think while we're in sixth place, which doesn't have a nice ring to it, we're only eight shots back and that's not that many in college golf," said junior Lou Baker, who rallied to shoot an even-par 72, tied for the low round by a Spider on Thursday. Baker birdied his final two holes and four of his final six.
"I was driving it better on the back 9 today, and got a couple of putts to fall finally. On the front 9, I didn't feel like I played that bad, but I couldn't make up for any little mistake with my short game. I was able to do that on the back 9."
Baker played the four par 5s on the Watson Course at Reunion Resort in 3-under par Friday, equaling the best in the field. He is tied for 10th among 55 players on the individual leaderboard along with junior Ben Cooper, who played his final six holes in 2-under to finish at 72.
Freshman Cole Ekert is one shot behind at 73 (+1), tied for 20th. Senior Michael Childress shot 75 (+3) and is tied for 32nd. Sophomore Garrett Clark carded a 76 (+4) and is tied for 36th.
Only VCU (17) made more birdies than Richmond (16) Friday. After recording just five birdies on the first 11 holes, the Spiders made 11 birdies on holes 12-18.
"We definitely had to face some adversity, but everyone battled pretty hard," said Baker. "You've got to stay patient. When it's only an eight-shot deficit you're talking about an up-and-down here for each guy, or a fairway there. We'll just stick to the gameplan and hope that more putts fall tomorrow."
Richmond will be paired with George Mason and St. Bonaventure for Saturday's second round. The Spiders first tee time will be at 8:20 AM.
"I think while we're in sixth place, which doesn't have a nice ring to it, we're only eight shots back and that's not that many in college golf," said junior Lou Baker, who rallied to shoot an even-par 72, tied for the low round by a Spider on Thursday. Baker birdied his final two holes and four of his final six.
"I was driving it better on the back 9 today, and got a couple of putts to fall finally. On the front 9, I didn't feel like I played that bad, but I couldn't make up for any little mistake with my short game. I was able to do that on the back 9."
Baker played the four par 5s on the Watson Course at Reunion Resort in 3-under par Friday, equaling the best in the field. He is tied for 10th among 55 players on the individual leaderboard along with junior Ben Cooper, who played his final six holes in 2-under to finish at 72.
Freshman Cole Ekert is one shot behind at 73 (+1), tied for 20th. Senior Michael Childress shot 75 (+3) and is tied for 32nd. Sophomore Garrett Clark carded a 76 (+4) and is tied for 36th.
Only VCU (17) made more birdies than Richmond (16) Friday. After recording just five birdies on the first 11 holes, the Spiders made 11 birdies on holes 12-18.
"We definitely had to face some adversity, but everyone battled pretty hard," said Baker. "You've got to stay patient. When it's only an eight-shot deficit you're talking about an up-and-down here for each guy, or a fairway there. We'll just stick to the gameplan and hope that more putts fall tomorrow."
Richmond will be paired with George Mason and St. Bonaventure for Saturday's second round. The Spiders first tee time will be at 8:20 AM.
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