FAYETTEVILLE -- California's Collin Morikawa got hot on the back nine with four consecutive birdies and added a tap-in par on No. 18 just before dark to seize the first-round lead at the NCAA Men's Golf Championships on Friday night.
Morikawa was at 1-under par before the late run, finishing with a 5-under 67 to lead the 156-man field at Blessings Golf Club.
The senior from La Canada Flintridge will take a two-shot lead over Arizona State's Chun An Yu, Oklahoma State's Austin Eckroat and Utah's Kyler Dunkle into the second round.
"I had three bogeys right before [the birdie run]," Morikawa said. "To be honest, I was a little tired. The heat was out there. When we first came out here after lunch, it was baking on us. I still knew I had a lot of birdie holes, especially 15, 16. I kept my head down and kept moving forward."
Cal Coach Walter Chun said he had contact with Morikawa a few times during the round but spent more time with the rest of the Golden Bears.
"Collin played great," Chun said. "When he's on fire, he's in a zone, there's nothing much I can do to help him except give him a Kleenex or a bottle of water. He's accomplished a lot. He knows what he's doing."
Morikawa's 67 was nearly 10 full strokes better than the first-day average score of 76.98.
Aggies hang in
No. 17 Texas A&M turned in the best round among the morning wave with an 8-over 296, one shot better than Ohio State.
The Aggies were led by sophomore Walker Lee, who fired a 1-under 71.
"I did pretty good with three birdies and two bogeys on a pretty tough course," Lee said. "I putted pretty good and played smart."
Lee said the key to his round was having the right mentality.
"A bunch of people are complaining about how the course is set up and the design and all that," he said. "We're all playing the same course, and just playing smart and realizing it's just a qualifier to get to match play."
Ace in house
R.H. Sikes, the Razorbacks' only NCAA individual men's champion, attended the opening round and took a tour of the course with Blessings founder John H. Tyson.
Sikes chatted with and posed for pictures with Arkansas freshman Julian Perico and coaches Brad McMakin and Barrett Lais after Perico finished his 1-under round of 71.
Sikes won the 1963 NCAA individual title. Current Razorback Mason Overstreet placed second in the 2017 tournament as a freshman.
Rebula ties
SEC individual champion Jovan Rebula of Auburn, who also won the 2018 British Amateur crown, is building a name for himself outside of being known as the nephew of fellow South African Ernie Els.
Rebula earned exemptions to the 2018 British Open and the 2019 Masters and U.S. Open with the British Amateur title won in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Rebula shot 79-79 and did not make the cut at the British Open, then shot 73-79 and failed to make the cut at the Masters.
Rebula shot a 1-over 73 on Friday and is tied for 21st. He's third on his team behind Jacob Solomon (71) and Brandon Mancheno (72).
All SEC
One of the pairings had a familiar feel, as LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M from the SEC all teed off together starting at 6:50 a.m. from the No. 10 tee.
The SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference tied for the most schools represented at the NCAAs with six. Auburn, Georgia and Vanderbilt are the other three SEC schools. Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, North Carolina and Wake Forest represent the ACC.
The Big 12 has five schools playing in the championships, the Pac-12 has four, while the Atlantic Sun, Big Ten and West Coast Conference have two teams each.
SMU of the American, Georgia Southern of the Sun Belt and UNLV of the Mountain West are single-team leagues.
Top field
The 156-man field at Blessings Golf Club features 23 players who are ranked in the top 48 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings, including everyone in the top five.
Oklahoma State's Viktor Hovland ranks No. 1, followed by Justin Suh of Southern California, Collin Morikawa of California, Matthew Wolff of Oklahoma State and Cole Hammer of Texas.
Defending NCAA champion Oklahoma State has four players ranked in the top 50, with No. 19 Zachary Bauchou and No. 45 Austin Eckroat joining Hovland and Wolff.
Hovland was the top amateur at the Masters in April, shooting a 3-under 285 to finish one stroke ahead of former Arkansas golfer Alvaro Ortiz.
Eagle speak
Four players eagled the par-5 15th hole in the morning wave and one more did it in the afternoon wave.
SMU's Ollie Osborne was the first to eagle the 560-yard hole, followed by Ohio State's Daniel Wetterich, then Louisville's Devin Morley and TCU's David Ravetto. Clemson's Kyle Cottam made 3 on the hole later in the day.
Georgia's Trevor Phillips made the only eagle on the course's longest hole, the beastly 617-yard No. 2. SMU's McClure Meissner was the only player to eagle the 590-yard fifth hole.
Morley, from Galway, Ireland, had a wild ride, as he played six consecutive holes on the back nine in bogey-bogey-birdie-birdie-eagle-triple bogey and finished with a 78.
The first eagle on a non-par 5 went to Wake Forest's Eric Bae, who made 2 on the par-4 seventh hole in the afternoon wave.
Par for 9
One player in the entire field managed to make nine consecutive pars on one set of nines.
Auburn's Graysen Huff did it on the front nine in the afternoon wave, firing an even-par 36 with nine consecutive pars.
BYU blows up
BYU opened the tournament with a round of 21-over-par 309 late Thursday at the Blessings after all the other participants had concluded their practice rounds.
The Cougars were allowed to play one round before the rest of the field because they do not participate in activities on Sunday due to religious reasons. The 21-over round will officially be posted as BYU's third round, which was played with the same pin locations as the other teams will experience Sunday.
The Cougars had an even tougher second round, shooting a 34 over for last place.
Bear down
Baylor not only had a rough day on the course, the Bears caught a bad break off of it.
The No. 23 Bears went off in the early wave and shot a 26 over, the highest score of the morning round and 29th of 30 teams. After the round, one of their two team vans had a flat tire.
Sports on 05/25/2019