No. 1 Bulldogs are 9th after 36
No. 1 Mississippi Gulf Coast got 2026 off to a slow start Monday during the first 36 holes of the Titan Winter Invitational in Melbourne, Fla.
The Bulldogs are 23 shots behind tournament leader Keiser at Suntree Country Club. They're in ninth place in the 13-team field.
"It was just a rough day," Gulf Coast coach Brad Thornton said. "We never really got anything going. The course was in perfect shape. The wind made it a little bit difficult for the guys, and we've just gotta shake some rust off at the start of January."
Three Bulldogs are tied for 19th at 8-over: Paul Hoefer (Fr., Heidelberg, Germany/Kurpfalzgymnasium Mannheim), Jayden Owensby (Fr., Hernando/Hernando) and Cal Wier (Fr., Hernando/Lewisburg). Yan Ferrando, from NAIA Keiser, leads at 1-under.
The Bulldogs are one of three NJCAA Division II teams in the field. They trail seventh-place Murray State, ranked fifth in the Bushnell Golfweek NJCAA Division II Coaches Poll, by five shots and are ahead of 12th-place Calhoune by eight. The rest of the teams are NAIA or NJCAA Division I squads.
The teams complete the 54-hole event Tuesday with a 7 a.m. CT shotgun start.
"We just want to see some improvement," Thornton said. "We need to play with a little bit better course management, and obviously execute a little bit better, but it's golf."
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