WINDERMERE, Fla. — Shooting a bogey-free first round, senior Max Sear leads the way for the West Virginia golf team after 18 holes of play at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational, hosted by the Mountaineers and UCF on Sunday at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Fla.
Sear sits in second place, while WVU is tied with No. 12 Texas for ninth place. The Mountaineers shot a team score of 288 to finish even par. No. 13 Vanderbilt is atop the team leaderboard at 12 under with a 276, while No. 22 Auburn and No. 26 Cal are tied for second at four-under-par with a 284.
Tying his career-low round of 66, Sear birdied one hole on the front nine and added five more on the back nine to finish six-under-par. He spent most of the round atop the individual leaderboard, but slipped to second after No. 73 Will Gordon of Vanderbilt shot eight under with a 64. Sear finished ahead of 18 of the 19 nationally ranked golfers in the field.
Junior Etienne Papineau also sits in the top 20 as he finished the first round tied for 15th. Papineau balanced two bogeys with a pair of birdies on the front nine before registering three birdies and two bogeys on the back nine. He shot a 71 for one under.
West Virginia hits the links for the second round on Monday. They are paired with LSU and Augusta in tee times starting at 8:25 off hole No. 10.
