O'Brien, Tanabe in Contention at Quechee Club

Saturday, September 22

Quechee, Vt. (Quechee Club)

All Day

Bucknell University

Quechee Club Collegiate Challenge

9/22/2018 7:57:00 PM | Men's Golf

FIRST-ROUND RESULTS

QUECHEE, Vt. -- Connor O'Brien and Chris Tanabe both posted 1-under-par 71s on Saturday, and the Bucknell men's golf team sits in sixth place among 12 teams at the midway point of the Quechee Club Collegiate Challenge.

O'Brien and Tanabe are tied for fourth place, just two shots off the individual lead, and the team is very much in contention as well. The Bison compiled a 302 team score in the first round and are just five shots behind first-place Cornell.

The Big Red opened with a 297, but Brown (300), Harvard (300), Princeton (300), Drexel (301), Bucknell (302), Holy Cross (303), Hartford (304), Dartmouth (307), Bryant (308), Siena (308) and Fordham (310) are all bunched up, with only 13 strokes separating the entire field.

O'Brien was terrific in his season debut. Bucknell started the day on the 10th hole, and O'Brien quickly made birdies at 12 and 15 to get to 2-under. Bogeys at 17 and 3 dropped him back to even par, but another birdie at the par-5 7th hole got him back into red numbers.

Tanabe shook off an early bogey at the par-5 11th to play the back side in even par, and then he posted a 1-under 34 with birdies at 3 and 8 to finish with a 71.

Tanabe and O'Brien are part of a four-way tie for fourth place, two shots behind co-leaders Drew Powell of Brown and Evan Quinn of Princeton. Grant Fairbairn of Harvard sits in solo third at 2-under.

Elsewhere for the Bison, freshman Carter Cook shot 79, while seniors J.P. Raftery and Jubal Early had rare off days with 81s.

Freshman Dylan Ford made his collegiate debut as an individual. After some early nerves, Ford played the final 12 holes in even par, highlighted by three straight birdies at 3, 4 and 5. He finished with a 78 despite being 5-over after three holes.

The final 18 holes get underway on Sunday morning with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.