Sept. 12, 2008

Gopher Invitational - First Round results

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WAYZATA, Minn. -- Marquette opened its 2008 fall season Friday at the Gopher Invitational held at Spring Hill Golf Club. Playing in his first event since the 2006-07 season, redshirt sophomore Ben Sieg provided the highlight of Friday's opening round -- and perhaps the highlight of his career -- with a hole-in-one. MU meanwhile is tied for fifth heading into Saturday.

Marquette currently sits at 10-over 298 as a team, tied with host Minnesota. At six-under 282, Texas leads the event with a two-stroke advantage over LSU (284) with Pepperdine (291) and Washington (292) lurking in the distance.

Sieg carded the Golden Eagles' low round with an even-par 72. He was even after 11 holes when he made the ace on the par-3, hole four to move to two-under.

Sieg, who along with senior Mike Van Sickle is the only other Golden Eagle to win a collegiate tournament by claiming medalist honors at the BIG EAST/MAC Challenge as a freshman, made par on the next three holes and moved to as high as fifth on the leaderboard. But a pair of bogeys to wrap up the round cost Sieg and the team a few spots, and he will enter Saturday's second round tied for ninth place.

The Golden Eagles started off sluggish and finished much like they began. Despite his team-best fifth birdie to move to one-under after 16 holes, Van Sickle carded a double-bogey followed by a bogey on holes eight and nine, respectively, and finished the day at two-over 74.

Dustin Schwab had the most consistent round among the Marquette players, shooting one-over 73. Schwab suffered three bogeys, but managed a pair of birdies to help even out his score, and is tied for 14th. Mike McDonald and Kelly Kretz look to rebound Saturday after each golfer posted a first round score of 79.