The tournament is being held at the Shoal Creek Country Club. The course has hosted two PGA championships.
“Shoal Creek is a beautiful place,” coach Jay Seawell said. “They are hosting a senior tour event right now, a major there. So it’s a great golf course, and I’m really proud of how we played today. We got out there and shot 10 under par. It was a good day for us.”
Junior Tom Lovelady is the oldest player on the team, and he is currently in first place overall at 8-under-par 136. He backed up his 70 from round one with a career-best score of 66.
“Tom did a great job today, first and second round,” Seawell said. “He made some clutch putts in maybe the second round that didn’t go in in the first round to get him that low number. I think that is a career low for him. He did a really good job carrying us this afternoon.”
Sophomores Robby Shelton and Gavin Moynihan ended the day in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Both players shot under par and helped Lovelady build onto the team’s lead.
“We hope to stay in with the same game plan and the same mindset. We realize that we are going to be in the last group cut situation, which is good. That’s what you want to do; you want your players to get accustomed to that. I look forward to watching them perform in that, with a chance to win and see what happens,” Seawell said.
North Florida, UAB, Ole Miss and Memphis round out the top five. North Florida is 4-under-par, and the host team UAB is 2-under-par. Ole Miss and Memphis are both 2-over-par. The rest of the tournament will be played Tuesday starting at 7:30 a.m.
“We need to be our best tomorrow, because we sure know that our competition will be,” Seawell said.
