Kelly In First After Rain-Shortened First Day At Miramont

BRYAN, Texas - Senior Louis Kelly carded an opening round 69 (-3) to take an early lead on a wet and windy Monday at the Miramont Invitational hosted at the par-72, 7,174-yard Miramont Country Club.

The start of the tournament was delayed until 1 p.m. due to heavy rains in the area forcing the tournament to be shortened to 36-holes.

After starting the round 3-over par through five holes, Kelly notched two birdies and an eagle to finish his first nine holes at 1-under. Kelly then played nearly bogey-free over the final nine holes posting three birdies to close out the round. Kelly, a native of Sewell, N.J., holds a one-stroke lead on Michael Perras of Houston.

"Its really nice to see Louis bounce back after a couple poor events to have a solid round for us," head coach Theo Sliman said. "I'm really pleased by his leadership and the role he is taking off of the golf course. It shows a lot of guts and toughness to shoot a round like that on this big of a golf course with the weather like it was. He really closed out strong in the last six holes and showed a lot of grit."

Haraldur Magnus finished the day one shot away from placing in the top 25 after carding a 3-over (75) to end up in a tie for 28th.

"I'm equally pleased with Haraldur as well," Sliman added. "He also showed guts in his final six holes. At one time it looked like he had a round headed in the wrong direction, but he settled down and shot sub par golf over the last six holes to gain some momentum headed into the final round."

As a team, the Cajuns sit in seventh after tallying an 18-hole score of 12-over (300). No. 43 Houston posted the only sub-par team score of the day using a 3-under (285) to take the lead. Sam Houston State (+2, 290), Texas State (+8, 296), USTA (+9, 297), UT Arlington (+11, 299) and Southeastern Louisiana (+11, 299) round out the top 5 teams.

"Tomorrow is the last team round this fall, and I feel like we haven't gotten a whole lot out of this group," Sliman stated. "We didn't have the complete team effort that I expect today, and it really comes down to our play in the final six holes. If we can come out and have a strong showing in the final six, then we will have a chance to come away with a good result. This is a great opportunity to close out team play this fall on a strong note."

Freshmen Paul San and Joseph Burgess are in a tie for 58th at six-over (78), while Fernando Cruz Valle capped the scoring for Louisiana in a tie for 68th at 8-over (80).

The Ragin' Cajuns are paired with Columbia and McNeese State for the final round which is slated to get underway at 8 a.m. with a shotgun start. Live scoring for the tournament is available on Golfstat.com.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Players Mentioned

Joseph Burgess

Fernando Cruz Valle

Louis Kelly

Haraldur Magnus

Paul San