Team Results | Individual Results

How it Happened
Rhode Island seniors Jordan Brajcich and Chris Francoeur are both among the top four after the first day of the Atlantic 10 Men's Golf Championship, helping the Rams land in second place in the team standings.

Playing on the Nicklaus Course of the Reunion Resort & Golf Club, Brajcich finished the day tied for second place in the individual standings. He sank five birdies on the day, the most of any player besides overall leader Henry May of Dayton, who had seven.

'Jordan has been hitting the ball really well for the last five or six weeks, and he put it together on the course today," Rhode Island head coach Gregg Burke said.


Brajcich shot three-under par over the final eight holes to finish the day with a 70. He is just three strokes off the lead May, who paced the 51-player field with a 67. Brajcich and Davidson's Alex Heffner are tied for second place.

Francoeur was the steadiest hand in the field, hitting par on the first 17 holes. The 17 pars led the field. Francoeur capped the day with a birdie on the 18th hole, working his way into a tie for fourth place in the individual standings.

"Chris could have been well under par, but he struggled putting. We know what he is capable of doing in that part of the game," Burke said. "Chris hit 17 greens off the tee. He is the real deal."

Rhody's top three players combined to hit par for the day. Bryson Richards finished his round with his third birdie of the day to get to two-over 74. Richards fired a minus-2 on the back nine to carry momentum into Day Two.
 
Burke credited Brandon Gillis, who was even par through 15 holes before finishing plus-5 for the round.

"Brandon is playing great golf, and he was able to grind out his round, which really was representative of the team's effort," Burke said. "Brandon was out until a week ago today, and then we were in 88-90 degrees out there. He played really well and just ran out of gas late. He gave us a great effort today."

As a team, the Rams finished the round with a plus-5 293 team score. Rhode Island is eight strokes behind Dayton. The Flyers are the lone team below par with a minus-3 285. Besides May, Dayton has Connor Quigley (-1) and Kyle Schmidt (E) among the top five in the individual standings. URI is three strokes ahead of third-place Davidson.

"I am really proud of the team," Burke said. "Obviously we played well to be in second place, but we left a lot of shots out there. That's a good thing because we know there is room to improve and make up ground. Our biggest opponent is our lack of strength from everyone having COVID and coming out of quarantine.

"The best thing for us right now is that we are in in the top three, so we have the latest tee times. We have time to rest for tomorrow."

Team Standings – After Day One
Dayton – 285
Rhode Island – 293
Davidson – 296
George Mason – 299
VCU – 299
Richmond – 300
George Washington – 303
St. Bonaventure – 303
Fordham – 312
La Salle – 313

Rhode Island Individual Results
T2 – Jordan Brajcich – 70 (-2)
T4 – Chris Francoeur – 71 (-1)
T10 – Bryson Richards – 74 (+2)
T36 – Brandon Gillis – 78 (+6)
T43 – Andrew DiPetrillo – 80 (+8)

What's Next
Rhode Island will be grouped with Davidson and Dayton on Day Two of the championship. The first of the five groups for the schools will tee off at 12:45 p.m. Saturday.