North Texas notches early lead in first day of C-USA championship

Texarkana Country Club gave up a little Sunday, but not a lot in the first round of the Conference USA Golf Championship.
The University of North Texas got consistent performances from four players and built a 4-stroke cushion after 18 holes over the University of Texas-El Paso, 283 to 287. North Carolina Charlotte is third at 289, with favorite Middle Tennessee fourth at 294. Defending champion Louisiana Tech is tied for last place in the 13-school field with Florida Atlantic and Old Dominion.
Both Thomas Rosenmueller and Cory Churchman posted 4-under-par 68s for the Mean Green, with Andrew Hudson shooting even par 72, and Ian Snyman 75.
UTEP also had two golfers under par with Andreas Sorenson finishing with a 70, and Frederik Dreler shooting 71.
Low round of the day was turned in by Charlotte senior Seth Gandy at 5-under 67. This is Gandy's third year to play TCC, and he's shot par or better five times in seven rounds. He had six birdies in Sunday's round at 3, 6, 7, 12, 14 and 17. His only bogey came at the par-4 tenth hole.
"The course wasn't playing easy; you had to hit specific spots, the greens were really firm," Gandy said. "It was a bit windy and you have to be patient. I'm sure the next couple of days the course will be set up harder. Texarkana is not as long as some courses we've played, but the greens more than make up for that."
Gandy felt his best hole was the dog-leg 14th where he wrapped a 3-iron off the tee into the middle of the fairway, and then hit an iron 25-feet past the flag. He converted for birdie.
"Other then that there was nothing really special about my round," Gandy said. "I hit a good drive at 10, and my approach shot landed about thirty feet from the stick. I three-putted after hitting my first putt too hard. As a team we're in pretty good shape right now. We've got a young team with three freshmen here."
Middle Tennessee was led by Marcus Byrd's 69.
Arguably the most exciting round was turned in by Old Dominion's Nick Rencis, who shot 41 on the front with five bogeys, and 31 on the back with birdies at 11, 12, 15, 17 and 18.