AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn men’s golf senior Brendan Valdes holds the individual lead following day one of the NCAA Auburn Regional at Auburn University Club, thanks to an eye-popping 7-under 65 on Monday.
As a team, Auburn sits in first place at 13-under-par with an eight-shot cushion on second.
“I started off pretty hot. It was good to get rolling off the get-go,” Valdes said. “Out here, it is very, very important to hit fairways. I was trying to start off pretty good on each hole and go from there. I’m excited to see what the next two rounds hold.”
Valdes opened the morning with birdies on each of his first three holes. He then made eight consecutive pars before picking up four more birdies on his final seven holes. Now with 541 career birdies, he needs just three more to overtake Jovan Rebula (2016-21) for the program record.
Auburn also got a big scoring boost from sophomore sensation Jackson Koivun. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina product also turned in a clean scorecard. He birdied 1, 3, 14, 16 and 18 for a 5-under 67, good for second place, individually.
“We didn’t make very many mistakes today,” Tigers head coach Nick Clinard said. “We played well. We played clean. We just need to take more advantage of some birdie opportunities these next two days if we want to keep our foot on the gas.”
Senior Carson Bacha carded a 71 (-1) as one of 19 men under par for the round. He started the day with birdies on 2 and 3 and picked up three more on 12, 13 and 15.
Sophomores Cayden Pope and Josiah Gilbert also had respectable outings, shooting 72 (E) and 73 (+1), respectively.
For round two, Auburn once again tees off from the front at 7:30 a.m. CT. The Tigers are set to play with UCLA and Georgia Tech. Gilbert will lead off the 11-minute intervals.
Following the completion of Wednesday’s round three, the top five teams will advance to the NCAA Championship set for May 23-28 at the Omni LaCosta Champions Course in Carlsbad, California.