Einarsson Posts Two Rounds Under Par to Lead Utes on First Day of N.I.T

Monday, March 18

Tucson, AZ

All Day

University of Utah

NIT Championship

Einarsson Posts Two Rounds Under Par to Lead Utes on First Day of N.I.T

3/18/2019 8:40 PM | Men's Golf

Team Round 1 & 2 Results Individual Round 1 & 2 Results

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Utah men's golf team continued spring play at the N.I.T on Monday where the Utes completed the first and second rounds of the event. Utah sits in 14^th place following 36 holes of play on the Catalina Course at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Club.

Utah shot 6-over par (294) in the first round, but improved their team score by four strokes in the second round after combining for 2-over par (290) to close out Monday's play. Utah has a combined score of 8-over par (584) heading into Tuesday's final round.

"We are pretty disappointed with our play today," said Garrett Clegg. "We did not come out with enough energy and our effort was not there today. We need to come out tomorrow focused and ready to go. Axel had two solid rounds today for our team and that was good to see from him. We need to have a good round tomorrow and get back on track."

Freshman Axel Einarsson got off to a great start to the N.I.T after he recorded his first two rounds under par to sit in a tie for 20^th place. Einarsson shot rounds of 1-under par (71) and 2-under par (70) to lead Utah on the first day with a score of 3-under par (141).

Senior Kyler Dunkle and sophomore Jordan Costello each posted 36-hole scores of 4-over par (148) and are tied for 59^th place. Dunkle shot 1-over par (73) and then 3-over par (75) to close out the first day. Costello shot 3-over par (75) in the first round and then followed it with a second-round 1-over par (73).

Sophomores Blake Tomlinson and Tristan Mandur closed out the Utes competing at the Catalina Course on Monday. Tomlinson is tied for 67^th place, while Mandur is tied for 75^th place. Tomlinson is 5-over par (75-74=149) after two rounds and Mandur is 7-over par (78-73=151).

No. 4-ranked Arizona State leads the 16-team field with a combined score of 33-under par. No. 7-ranked USC (-27) sits behind the Sun Devils in second place, while No. 5-ranked Oklahoma (-20) is in third place. No. 32-ranked UNLV (-19) is in fourth, while New Mexico (-18) rounded out the top-five teams on Monday.

Utah led the entire field in the first two rounds with 4 eagles. Einarsson and Costello each sank one, while Tomlinson notched two eagles on the day.

The Utes also had two student-athletes competing in the individual tournament going on at the Sonoran Course at the OMNI Tucson National. Junior Peyton Hastings shot a combined 5-over par (145) to sit tied for 13^th place after registering a first-round even par (70) and five-over par (75) in the second round. Fellow junior Mitchell Schow finished the day in 20^th place with a combined score of 14-over par (70-84=154). Schow also sank a hole-in-one during his first round on hole No. 6, a 209-yard par 3.

Utah's five-man team will close out the N.I.T Tuesday morning beginning at 8 a.m. MST in a shotgun start format. For Utah's individuals, the final round will begin at 7:30 a.m. MST. Live scoring for the team event can be found via Golfstat.com, while the individual tournament can be found via Golfstat.com.