Behind McDonough & Schrott, CSUN Shares Round One Lead at Big West Championship

Golfstat Live Scoring

LA QUINTA, Calif. - Brandon McDonough and Felix Schrott each fired a 6-under 66 on Sunday as the CSUN men's golf team shares the round one lead at the 2023 Big West Men's Golf Championship at La Quinta Country Club.

At 7-under 281, the fourth-seeded Matadors are tied with Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State atop the team leaderboard. Fourth-place Cal Poly (290) is nine shots back, followed by UC Irvine (291), Hawai'i (293), UC Davis (296), UC Santa Barbara (298) and UC Riverside (306).

McDonough and Schrott share the individual lead at 6-under 66, one shot in front of the Titans' Harry Doig and three strokes clear of three Long Beach State players at 3-under 69. After a birdie at No. 3, McDonough made an eagle at No. 5 to get to 3-under where he would finish his front nine. He then birdied three of his first five holes on the back nine to get as low as 6-under on the day. A bogey at No. 17 dropped him to 5-under before he clipped on from off the 18th green to birdie his final hole and finish the day at 6-under 66.

Schrott made par on his opening four holes before three straight birdies moved him to 3-under after seven holes. He closed his front nine with a pair of pars before making birdie at No. 11 and No. 13 to get to 5-under. Four consecutive pars set up a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th green that matched McDonough at 6-under 66.

CSUN SCORES

Following McDonough and Schrott, Nick Fowlkes is also in the top-20 as an opening round 1-over 73 left him tied for 14th. Fowlkes had one birdie and four bogeys on the front nine to head to the back at 3-over. He notched his second birdie at No. 13 which followed three pars to open his final nine. After four more pars, Fowlkes would birdie No. 18 with a miraculous save out of the sand trap to finish the day at 1-over 73.
Paul-Louis Gachet was 3-over after five holes on Sunday before bouncing back with a pair of birdies over his final four holes on the front nine. Opening the back nine at 2-over, Gachet had a triple bogey at No. 10 to drop to 5-over before finishing 1-under over his final eight holes to finish his round at 4-over 76.
Eirik Thomassen had three birdies in round one but struggled to a 5-over 77. CSUN's low scorer coming into the championship is tied for 36th heading into round two.

COACH JIM BRACKEN SAID
"The guys really grinded out today's round. Branden really stepped up big time and Felix hit a lot of greens and made a lot of putts. They both have a lot of confidence heading into round two tomorrow. This team has a lot of depth and anyone can step up at any time. I can't remember the last time we had two guys in the lead so It's great to be in the hunt and we'll look for as good or hopefully a better round tomorrow."

The Matadors will be paired with Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State for round two which gets underway Monday morning at 10 a.m. off the No. 1 tee. Thomassen will tee-off first followed by Gachet (10:10 a.m.), Fowlkes (10:20 a.m.), McDonough (10:30 a.m.) and Schrott (10:40 a.m.)

#GoMatadors

Behind McDonough & Schrott, CSUN Shares Round One Lead at Big West Championship

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Players Mentioned

Nick Fowlkes

Paul-Louis Gachet

Brandon McDonough

Felix Schrott

Eirik Thomassen