MacDougall leads HPU in recording-matching day at the Big South Men’s Golf Championship

• Freshman Brendan MacDougall paced the Panthers with a four-birdie -1 (71) and is in a tie for 14th overall.
• Freshman RJ Bartolomucci shot matching 36’s on the front and back nines to finish the day tied for 17th with an even-par 72 score.
• High Point finished day one in fifth (+4) in a tight field while its 292 mark ties a program-best round in the Big South Championship set in 2002.

NINETY SIX, S.C. – Freshman Brendan MacDougall anchored the High Point University men’s golf team, which sits in fifth at the Big South Championship after the first round on Friday.

MacDougall carded a -1 (71) and leads the Panthers on the leaderboard in a tie for 14th. The Calgary, Alberta product’s score tied him for the best round by an HPU individual in the Big South Championship since Chase Wilson fired a 69 in 2010.

Likewise, High Point’s 292 matched the program’s top Big South Championship round tying the 2002 squad. Meanwhile, the team’s score is a 25-stroke improvement on its performance in the first round last year.

“I’m very proud of the way our guys played today,” head coach Brady Gregor said. “Any time you can tie a program’s conference record is amazing especially when you have four guys playing in the conference tournament for the first time. We were nervous in the beginning, but our guys recognized it, embraced it and put together one of the better performances on the back nine to keep us in it.”

MacDougall started one-over through five holes but birdied four of his next nine to climb to three-under headed to the 15th tee. The freshman, then, bogeyed 15 and 16 before recovering with back-to-back pars to finish one-under.

Similarly, freshman RJ Bartolomucci was also one-over through five before birdieing the sixth hole to get to even. From there, the Hilton Head, S.C. native continued to play consistent golf to finish the day with an even-par (72) and tied for 17th.

Rounding out the trio of HPU freshman, Alec Weary went out in 38, but bounced back for a 36 on the back nine to finish just two over par with a 74.

Sophomore Davis Kiger doubled his second hole of the tournament but recovered posting 14 pars over the final 15 holes to wrap up the day +3 (75). Rounding out the HPU lineup, junior Emile Menard posted a +5 (77).

“You can’t win a tournament on the first day, but you sure can lose it,” Gregor continued. “It’s a tough conference and we’re going to go out tomorrow and chip away at Campbell and Liberty and try to make run for it. We’re very excited and our attitudes were great as we look to move up into the final pairing before Sunday.”

The Camels lead the way with a -15 while Liberty is three shots behind in second place.

The Panthers and the rest of the field will be back out on the course for the second round of action on Saturday morning.