Cajuns Golf Lands In 10th After First Day at Border Olympics

LAREDO, Texas – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns golf team posted a 36-hole score of 4-over (580) to end the first day of the 2015 Border Olympics in tenth place on Friday at the par 72, 7,125-yard Laredo Country Club.

"Obviously tenth place after two rounds is not where we would like to be or expect to be," head coach Theo Sliman said. "We are nine shots out of a top 5 showing at a very gettable golf course. We made plenty of birdies and had plenty of opportunities, but we didn't finish well in the final six holes of both rounds. That really comes down to being mentally tough."

The Cajuns opened the day with a score of even par (288) in the first round, but saw an afternoon round of 4-over (292) drop the squad four spots heading into the final day.

No. 13 Baylor and No. 33 Houston are tied for the team lead at 12-under (564). Pacific (-10, 566), No. 41 Sam Houston State (-9, 567) and McNeese State (-5, 571) round out the top 5 teams.

Individually, Matt Scobie of Houston sits atop the leaderboard at 9-under (135). Scobie fired an impressive 64 (-8) in the morning round.

Junior Christian Verrougstraete paces Louisiana in a tie for 16th at 2-under (142). Verrougstraete carded a 69 (-3) in the first 18 holes of the day posting six birdies with only two blemishes.

"I'm really proud of Christian," Sliman said. "Apart from a little mishap in his second 18 holes, he played very much in control. It's no surprise that his mental discipline has him on top our of individual leaderboard."

Haraldur Magnus sits one stroke back of Verrougstraete in a tie for 21st at 1-under (143). Magnus also tallied a score of 69 in the morning round.

Louis Kelly is currently in a tie for 43rd at 2-over (146), while Fernando Cruz Valle ended the day in a tie for 68th at 5-over (149). J.C. Burgess rounded out the scoring in a tie for 97th at 14-over (158).

"We need to clean up some unforced errors," Sliman added. "Our players did some pretty special things, but as a collective team you can't make triple bogey and double bogey and expect to compete at a high level. The mistakes we are making aren't physical. They are mental. We had too many big numbers on our scorecard today because of mental mistakes. The good thing is that we can clean up those mistakes and hopefully come out and improve tomorrow."

The Cajuns are paired with UTEP, Rice and UTSA for the final round. Play is set to get underway at 8 a.m. with a shotgun start. Live scoring is available on GolfStat.com.

For updates on Ragin' Cajuns golf, follow the squad on twitter @CajunGolf or check RaginCajuns.com.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Players Mentioned

Fernando Cruz Valle

Louis Kelly

Haraldur Magnus

Christian Verrougstraete