Parkinson tied for first, Cougars in second

BREMERTON, Wash. – Joe Parkinson fired a two-under 70 during Monday’s opening round of the West Coast Conference Golf Championships helping BYU to a second place standing.

In a solid team effort, BYU shot a three-over 291-team score during the first round. They currently sit three strokes back of team leader No. 23 St. Mary’s (E) and six strokes ahead of Pepperdine (+9) and San Francisco (+9).

“I thought we played pretty consistent all around, we just had a couple stretches through the golf course where we had a bunch of bogeys,” BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. “Other than our finish, I thought we played really solid. Parkinson played awesome. That 70 was really good. Zac Blair was really tough all day.”

Parkinson had a solid opening round making birdie on holes 1, 6, 8 and 10, in addition to a stretch of eight straight pars.  The freshman is currently in a three-way tie for first place at two-under-par with Ben Geyer of St. Mary’s and Scott Lowe of Santa Clara.

“My golf swing is really good right now and I’m hitting the ball solid, which really helped out today,” Parkinson said.

Blair followed Parkinson with a strong effort, carding an opening round of 71 (-1). Blair was consistent, finishing with three birdies and 13 pars to tie for fourth place, just one stroke behind first.

Sophomore Devon Purser contributed an opening round 74 (+2). Starting on the back nine Purser shot even par, followed by a two-over-par front nine to finish the day tied for 13^th place.

Junior Jordan Hammer shot a first round 76 (+4) converting three birdies and eight pars to finish tied for 21^st.

Despite going eight-over-par during his opening nine holes, Junior Justin Keiley had a strong finish going even-par through his final nine holes. He currently sits tied for 36^th at eight-over-par.

“I’m excited about what will happen tomorrow and it’s nice to be in contention,” Brockbank said. “You can’t win it the first round, but you can sure lose it and the guys hung in there.”

Second round action begins tomorrow morning with tee times set to start at 8 a.m. PDT. Follow live stats at golfstat.com or visit the WCC Golf Championship Central Page at WCCsports.com for scoring updates and video recaps.

Individual Scores

Team Scores