Round One in the Books for Johnson at NCAAs

TOLEDO -- BYU junior Brady Johnson struggled in the opening round of the NCAA D-I Men’s Golf Championships at the par-71 Inverness Country Club.

Johnson made birdie on the par-4 fourth hole and also made 11 pars, including seven on the back nine. His opening round of 7-over-par is nine strokes back of the overall leaders. The final three holes on the front nine proved to be costly for Johnson as he played holes seven, eight and nine in 5-over-par.

The native of Mill Bay, British Columbia is competing as one of six individual golfers among 150 team participants from the top 30 teams across the country that qualified for the championship.

“Those were some pretty tough 18 holes and I struggled a bit today,” Johnson said. “There’s a reason Inverness is one of the best courses in the country.”

Five teams and one individual from six regional tournaments qualified for the NCAA Championships. Johnson won the individual honor from the West Regional held May 14-16 at the Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif., with Arizona State, Oregon, Texas A&M, UC-San Diego and USC advancing as teams.

TCU is the only Mountain West Conference school that advanced after qualifying from the Central Regional and is currently in 15th place.

Johnson will tee off Wednesday at 12:05 p.m. MST. The stroke-play championship will continue through Thursday’s final round, after which the top eight teams from stroke play will compete in a match-play championship Friday and Saturday.

“I just hope to go out and do my best in round two,” Johnson said.

Full results from the NCAA D-I Men’s Golf Championships can be found at golfstat.com.

2009 NCAA D-I Men's Golf Championships
   Top 10 Teams (out of 30)
T1   (4)Oklahoma State   +4
T1   (1)Georgia          +4
3   (28)Chattanooga      +8
T4   (6)Washington       +9
T4      UC-San Diego     +9
T6  (14)Arizona State    +10
T6      Ohio State       +10
T6  (20)Tennessee        +10
9   (45)Michigan         +12
T10  (9)Arkansas         +13
T10  (2)USC              +13
T10 (42)Duke             +13
   Individual golfers
T1    (4)Matt Hill, NC State     -2
T9   (89)Corey Nagy, Charlotte    E
T16  (68)Hugues Joannes, Lamar   +1
T16   (5)Kyle Stanley, Clemson   +1
T75      Cody Paladino, Baylor   +5
T118     Brady Johnson, BYU      +7