St. John's extends Big East lead
Ryan McCormick
CALLAWASSIE ISLAND, S.C. (April 28, 2014) -- With the winds dying down throughout the day, the second round of the BIG EAST Conference Men's Golf Championships began a little bit more challenging, but as the team's settled into the round, the winds calmed down which set the stage for another perfect day at Callawassie Island on Monday.
With 36 holes in the books, St. John's extended its lead on the nine-team field to 10 strokes after recording a 295. The Red Storm's Ryan McCormick and Ben Ludlam are one-two on the leaderboard heading into Tuesday's final round.
McCormick matched his score from Sunday with a 71 in the second round. The senior tallied two birdies and an eagle to hold onto a three stroke lead over his teammate Ludlam (145).
"I thought I played pretty solid," McCormick said after Monday's round. "I hit the ball well and got it close a bunch of times."
"I had some good putts - the greens are pretty tricky and fast so you can't be too aggressive. I probably putted better today than yesterday, so that was the difference. The conditions were pretty similar overall," McCormick added.
Seton Hall's Lloyd Jefferson Go carded an even-par 72 and is a stroke in front of trio tied for fourth. Marquette's Brandon Cloete and C.J. Swift and Xavier's Yuki Kato are all tied for fourth.
The top three teams stayed the same from round one to round two. Marquette (595) is second and Seton Hall (608) is third. Xavier (609) is one stroke behind the Pirates and jumped into fourth place after tying St. John's for the lowest round of the day at 295. DePaul (610) is one stroke behind the Musketeers in fifth place.
Georgetown (618), Butler (630), Villanova (642) and Creighton (644) round out the final four spots in the team standings, respectively.
Zach Gaugert from Marquette recorded the tournament's first eagle, when he carded a three on the fifth hole of the Dogwood Course. Gaugert would finish the second round with a score of 76 and is in a three-way tie for 10th place.
ABOUT THE Big East Championship
54 hole men's collegiate championship of the Big
East Conference. Team (best four scores out of five
players each round) and individual competitions.
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