March 16, 2018
STATESBORO, Ga. – The Notre Dame men’s golf team carded a strong opening round at the Schenkel Invitational on Friday, recording a 286, two-under par, good for a tie for fourth place. The team score was the second best round earned this spring by the Irish.
Individually, the Irish received a big boost from freshman Davis Chatfield, who sits near the top at the leaderboard in a tie for fourth place with a 68, four-under par round. It marked his second best round all year and tied for the third best on the team overall. Chatfield sits just two strokes behind the leader, Theo Humphrey of Vanderbilt.
“A very solid opening round,” Notre Dame head coach John Handrigan stated. “We’ve prepared hard this week and it showed today with all six guys. We had a very strategic course strategy and was rewarding to see that we had the discipline to follow it. Already looking forward to tomorrow.”
OPENING ROUND
Chatfield played a bogey-free front-nine, which included three straight birdies on holes 5-7. Chatfield’s first blemish came via a bogey on hole 11, but the freshman responded with back-to-back birdies before finishing the back nine one-under, thus four-under for the round.
Both Miguel Delgado and Davis Lamb were one-under after the front-nine. Delgado earned an eagle on the par-5 seventh, while Lamb followed Chatfield’s path of a bogey-free front-nine. Lamb finished the round tied for 22nd at even-par (72) while both Delgado and Ben Albin tied for 35th at one-over (73).
Albin shot even-par through the front-nine before capping the round with a birdie on the 18th. Kevin Conners rounded out the team portion with two-over, 74, round.
Last but not least, John Felitto, who is competing as an individual, started his day on the back-nine and recorded 15 straight pars. Felitto then eagled the par-5 seventh and birdied the par-5 ninth, finishing at three-under par (69) and tied for seventh, just three strokes off the top spot.
ON DECK
The Irish will return to the Forest Heights Country Club on Saturday for second round action. Notre Dame will start teeing off at 9:45 a.m. ET and are paired with NC State and Georgia State.
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