Oct. 23, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif - The Santa Clara Invitational got underway Monday morning at Silver Creek Valley Country Club with one of the largest fields in the recent past. Eighteen schools, from all across North America sent their best to participate in the annual event. After the first 36 holes, Santa Clara is in a tie for tenth place at +21 with a combined score of 597 (304, 293), 20 strokes behind leader University of British Columbia, who are at +1 with a combined score 577 (290, 287).

The story of the morning was some higher than expected scores. Sunday's practice round came amidst sunny skies and temperatures above 80 degrees, and the Monday morning fog and cooler temperatures made for unpredictable green speeds. Tough pin placements made things even more difficult, but by the afternoon, conditions had returned to expectations, as was demonstrated by significantly lower second round scores.

The hardest holes proved to be par-three's - the 195-yard fourth, the 237-yard 12th, and the 184-yard 15th - on which nearly 40% of players were unable to save par. For the first two rounds, not a single school had performed better than +6 on the four par-three holes, though most made up for it on the par-five holes, where ten schools managed to finish the day below par.

For Santa Clara, who finished the day tied for 10th place, the Broncos were led by senior Jong Yoon, is currently tied for 16th individually at +2 with a combined score of 146 (75, 71). Teammates Eric Lillibridge and Mike Miller were just three strokes behind, tied for 31st at +5 with combined scores of 149. Santa Clara junior Blair Myers, who participated in the tournament with no team affiliation, continued his strong play, and finished the day in a four-way tie for 7th place at -1 with a combined score of 143 (71, 72).

Individual leader Jason D'Amore of Loyola Marimount University, who finished at -6 with a combined score of 138 shared in what were the best rounds of the day with his first round 70 (4 players) and second round 68 (4 players). Team leader University of British Columbia finished the day with four of it's five representatives appearing in the Top-20.

On Tuesday, competition will again be a shotgun start, with 18 holes beginning at approximately 8:00 a.m.