ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Texas A&M redshirt freshman golfer William Paysse scorched the back nine to grab a share of the first round lead at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational on Friday at the Lakeside Course.
Paysee, from Belton, Texas, fired a 5-under par 67 and shared the lead after the first day with Stanford's David Snyder and USC's Yuxin Lin. After playing his first nine holes at even par, Paysse tallied five birdies on the second nine (actually the front nine since the Aggies started at No. 10). For the day, Paysse carded six birdies with 11 pars and just one bogey.
"What an amazing round for Willie Paysse," head coach J.T. Higgins said. "He was really solid from start to finish. His short game was great and he took advantage of his opportunities and finished like a champ. He birdied the last three holes. It was just a terrific individual effort."
Like Paysse, the Aggies made a charge in the final nine holes with a collective 14 birdies after closing out their first nine holes at 8-over and out of the top-10. The Aggies finished the day at 2-under (286) and in sole possession of sixth place. Pepperdine took the day one lead at 12-under followed by Stanford (-5), Duke (-4), UCLA (-3) and North Carolina (-3) to round the top five.
Also going low on the back nine was senior Dan Erickson, who was 4-over after eight holes but closed with six birdies over the final 10 holes. Erickson finished the day with a 1-under 71 and tied for 16th. Rounding out the Aggies' scorers were senior Brandon Smith and junior Walker Lee, who posted 2-over 74s and were tied for 43rd.
"It was a terrific back nine for the guys. It never ceases to amaze me how resilient these guys are and how hard they fight. They just never quit and I'm really proud of that. It was just an incredible back nine. The negative of that is that we needed it because we played so poorly on our front nine. The way we played on the front put us behind the eight-ball and had to play well to get back into it. They responded well and got back into the mix, so that part is great. We need to figure out how to get to the golf course and get out to a better start because it's happened too much already this season. It's hard to get off to poor starts and have to play out of a hole.
Aggies on the Leaderboard (Rd. 1):
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Fans can follow the action at Golfstat.com and updates will be available via twitter on @AggieMensGolf.
Paysee, from Belton, Texas, fired a 5-under par 67 and shared the lead after the first day with Stanford's David Snyder and USC's Yuxin Lin. After playing his first nine holes at even par, Paysse tallied five birdies on the second nine (actually the front nine since the Aggies started at No. 10). For the day, Paysse carded six birdies with 11 pars and just one bogey.
"What an amazing round for Willie Paysse," head coach J.T. Higgins said. "He was really solid from start to finish. His short game was great and he took advantage of his opportunities and finished like a champ. He birdied the last three holes. It was just a terrific individual effort."
Like Paysse, the Aggies made a charge in the final nine holes with a collective 14 birdies after closing out their first nine holes at 8-over and out of the top-10. The Aggies finished the day at 2-under (286) and in sole possession of sixth place. Pepperdine took the day one lead at 12-under followed by Stanford (-5), Duke (-4), UCLA (-3) and North Carolina (-3) to round the top five.
Also going low on the back nine was senior Dan Erickson, who was 4-over after eight holes but closed with six birdies over the final 10 holes. Erickson finished the day with a 1-under 71 and tied for 16th. Rounding out the Aggies' scorers were senior Brandon Smith and junior Walker Lee, who posted 2-over 74s and were tied for 43rd.
"It was a terrific back nine for the guys. It never ceases to amaze me how resilient these guys are and how hard they fight. They just never quit and I'm really proud of that. It was just an incredible back nine. The negative of that is that we needed it because we played so poorly on our front nine. The way we played on the front put us behind the eight-ball and had to play well to get back into it. They responded well and got back into the mix, so that part is great. We need to figure out how to get to the golf course and get out to a better start because it's happened too much already this season. It's hard to get off to poor starts and have to play out of a hole.
Aggies on the Leaderboard (Rd. 1):
| T1 | William Paysse (rFr.) | 67 |
| T16 | Dan Erickson (Sr.) | 71 |
| T43 | Walker Lee (Jr.) | 74 |
| T43 | Brandon Smith (Sr.) | 74 |
| 73 | Josh Gliege (Sr.) | 79 |
Follow the Action:
Fans can follow the action at Golfstat.com and updates will be available via twitter on @AggieMensGolf.