Pepperdine takes the lead at Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate

Playing all the way across the country, Pepperdine took the first-round lead at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate on Friday as they try to chase a second-consecutive October win. The Waves went 12 under in Alpharetta, Ga., which was seven shots better than Stanford.

The Waves fired a 12-under 276 at the par-72 Golf Club of Georgia, with four of five players finishing under par. Josh McCarthy and Joe Highsmith led that charge, as each posted a 4-under 68. That put them in a share of fourth individually with Wake Forest’s Mark Power.

The individual leaderboard is crowded at the top with three men doing one better: Stanford’s David Snyder, USC’s Yuxin Lin (recent winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur) and Texas A&M’s William Paysse all opened with 5-under 67.

For Pepperdine, freshman William Mouw got on a four-birdie streak from Nos. 9-12 which helped him to a 3-under 69. Redshirt senior Sahith Theegala was the other Pepperdine counter with a 1-under 71.

The Waves got their first season victory last week at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational. They are ranked No. 5 by Golfweek and were No. 5 in the latest Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll to be released on Friday.

Behind Stanford in second, Duke had a 4-under 284 on Friday to fall into third, followed by UCLA and North Carolina in a tie for fourth one shot back.

Playing at home, Georgia Tech is ninth at 2 over.