PANAMA CITY, Fla. – In its first tournament round of the 2024 spring season, the University of Pennsylvania men's golf team is in 12th place facing a stacked field at the Watersound Invitational. The three-day, 54-hole event began Monday on the par-72 Shark's Tooth course at the Watersound Club.
 
The field for this week's tournament is arguably the strongest the Quakers have ever played against in tournament action. In looking at the Clippd national rankings, Penn is up against six of the nation's top 20 teams—Vanderbilt at No. 3, Virginia at No. 10, Alabama at No. 11, Georgia Tech at No. 12, Florida State at No. 13, Mississippi State at No. 18—and the only team in the field ranked lower than 77th is the Red and Blue (223).
 
Tournament Results (Golfstat.com)
 
Vanderbilt leads the field after the first day, the third-ranked Commodores living up to their billing by shooting 10-under-par 278 for the day. No. 18 Mississippi State and Clemson are tied for second after both teams finished at 5-under-par 283, while Notre Dame is fourth at 4-under-par 284. Penn shot 25-over-par 313 on Monday on a day when eight teams met par or bettered it.
 
Junior Ben Scott was Penn's low scorer on Monday, the junior carding a 1-over-par 73 which has him tied for 35th in a field of 75 golfers. Freshman Max Fonseca shot a 4-over-par 76 and is tied for 64th. Senior Jimin Jung and junior George Roesseler were the Quakers' other scorers on the day, while freshman Hayden Adams filled out the lineup. Sophomore Steven Lee is in the field as an individual and put together a strong first day, carding a 2-over-par 74 which has him tied for 48th overall.
 
Mississippi State's Hunter Logan and Alabama's Thomas Ponder share the first-round lead individually, both of them shooting 6-under-par 66. That has them two strokes ahead of FSU's Gray Albright—who's in the field as an individual—and Vandy's Gordon Sargent who are tied for third at 4-under-par 68.
 
Up Next
Second-round action starts at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning at the Watersound Club. The Quakers will play with Notre Dame and Clemson on Tuesday with tee times at 10:10 a.m. (Scott), 10:20 (Fonseca), 10:30 (Roesseler), 10:40 (Adams), 10:50 (Jung) and 11:00 (Lee).
 
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