Liberty University
Prestige Invitational
No. 33 Flames in 16th Position Following Day 1 of The Prestige
2/20/2023 10:29:48 PM | Men's Golf
Facing its most challenging field of the regular season, No. 33 Liberty finds itself in a share of 16th place following the first day of play at The Prestige.
Liberty carded a 12-over par 296 during its first of three trips around the Greg Norman Course at PGA West (pa 71, 7,100).
The 24-team field includes 11 teams who entered the tournament ranked inside the top 50 in the country in the latest Golfstat.com national rankings.
Pacing the way is No. 15 Pepperdine, the 2021 national champions, who opened the event with an 8-under par 276.
No. 6 Stanford, who is sharing tournament hosting duties with UC Davis, is one shot behind in second place following a 7-under par 277.
Rounding out the top three teams in the field is No. 42 TCU, who is in third place following a 5-under par 279.
A total of 26 players in the 120-player field finished day one of the tournament in red figures. Pepperdine’s William Mouw leads the field following an opening round 6-under par 65.
Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen, the No. 2 ranked golfer in the country, shares second place and is one shot off the field following a 5-under par 66.
Jonathan Yaun and Austin Barbin are pacing the way for Liberty, as they share 44th place following a 2-over par 73.
Yaun birdied three of his final seven holes to get back to 2-over par. Barbin posted a birdie on the par-5, No. 8 hole (617 yards), his second to last hole of the day, to get back to the same score.
The Flames will be in the afternoon flight tomorrow, as they go off the No. 1 tee, starting at 2:55 p.m. EST. Gusty winds are forecasted for the day, which could cause the Greg Norman Course to play even higher than its near three strokes over par average from Monday (73.86 field stroke average.
Round Recap – Liberty’s Starting Five:
- Jonathan Yaun – T44 2-over par 73 (73)
- Austin Barbin – T44 2-over par 73 (73)
- Isaac Simmons – T69 4-over par 75 (75)
- Connor Polender – T69 4-over par 75 (75)
- Josh Ryan – T96 7-over par 78 (78)
Course Information:
- Greg Norman Course at PGA West (La Quinta, Calif.)
- Par 71, 7,100 yards
Following the Flames at Gator Invitational:
- Live stats will be available at Golfstat.com
- Twitter @LibertyGolf
- Instagram @LibertyGolf
- Round 2 Tee Time: Tuesday at 2:55 p.m./EST (No. 1 tee)
