Paul Conroy produced a superb five-under par round of 67 to help the Chattanooga Mocs men’s golf team into second place after the opening day of the Southern Conference Championships.
Conroy sits tied-third on the individual leaderboard after taking advantage of the par-5s with three birdies and an eagle on day one. He posted two further birdies and two dropped shots in a brilliant first outing around the Oconee Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee
The Mocs are tied for second as a team after shooting 11-under 277, their best 18 holes ever in the event, led by Conroy.
“The key was I played the par 5s really well,” Conroy said before heading to the practice green to work on his chipping. “I had a bad break at 18 (bogey), but I had a couple of good breaks out there as well.
“It’s nice to have everyone on the team competing and playing well. It definitely pushes you to play better for each other. So it’s nice to have that come together with a good start.”
The Enniscorthy man’s 67 is his third career score in the 60s in the event, setting a new school record while beating former All-Americans Stephan Jaeger ’12 and Chris Robb ’14.
ETSU has the early lead with 274. Chattanooga and Furman are tied for second with Mercer in fourth at 285. Western Carolina shot even-par 288 to place five teams at par or better. Wofford in sixth at 290 followed by UNC Greensboro (292) and Samford (294). The Bucs Matty Dodd-Berry and Mats Ege are tied for the lead, one ahead of Conroy, at six- under
The Mocs start day two with a familiar opponent on the tee, opening round villains ETSU. The twosomes start on one at 9:55 a.m., led by Espinosa. Engle, Wear, Houk and Conroy follow in 10-minute intervals.
- Full scoring HERE
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