St. Simons Island, Ga. – Led by senior Magnus Pedersen in a tie for 31st after 18 holes, the Western Carolina men's golf team sits in a four-way tie for 11th after Thursday's first round of the 2023 Sea Palms Invitational hosted at the par-71, 6,664-yard Sea Palms Resort. WCU is tied with Richmond, Siena, and Radford with a first-day team score of 3-over par, 287.
 
Round two gets underway at 7:10 a.m. on Friday with teams beginning both on No. 1 and No. 10. Live scoring through GolfStat is available online with a link at CatamountSports.com.
 
The top three teams in Monday's first round – co-leaders Davidson and Wright State at 271 and third-place UCF at 273 – each broke the previous tournament-low round of 274 originally carded by Wright State in the third round of the 2022 event. Rounding out the leaders is a three-way tie for fourth at 275 between Western Kentucky, Augusta, and Jacksonville State.
 
UCF's Markus Braadlie set a single-round record low with his first-round 64 to lead the 120-golfer field after the first round. Braadlie carded 11 pars and seven birdies in a bogey-free round to sit atop the individual leaderboard. The three-way tie for second between Carson Bellish of Xavier, Mikkel Mathiesen of Wright State, and UCF's Ego Eroshenko matched the previous tournament-low individual 18-hole score of 65.
 
Opening on the back nine, Pedersen countered three bogeys with four birdies and 11 pars to lead the squad at 1-under par 70. The Moss, Norway just six strokes off the pace entering the second round. Graduate transfer Adam Hooker is a stroke in arrears after shooting even-par 71 Thursday. Hooker countered three bogeys with three birdies in the first round.
 
Rounding out WCU's scoring five are junior Pablo Hernandez in a tie for 51st at 1-over par 72, fifth-year senior Louis Theys in a tie for 76th at 3-over par 74, and redshirt freshman Josh Lendach in a tie for 85th at 4-over par 75. Hernandez and Lendach both tallied three birdies while Theys posted four over the opening 18 holes.
 
Playing unattached as individuals, sophomore Kiefer Bulau shot a 1-over par 72 to sit tied for 51st while senior Quinton Metz is 120th with a first-round score of 84. Bulau charted a trio of birdies against one double-bogey and two bogeys on Thursday while ranking tied for third in the tournament field in par-3 scoring at 1-under par (2.80).
 
Complete recaps and results will be made available after each day's competition.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountMGolf).
 
2023 Sea Palms Invitational
March 8-11, 2023
Sea Palms Resort – St. Simons Island, Ga.
 
T11 – Western Carolina – 287 = 287
T31 – Magnus Pedersen (4) – 70 = 70 (-1)
T42 – Adam Hooker (1) – 71 = 71 (E)
T51 – Pablo Hernandez (2) – 72 = 72 (+1)
T76 – Louis Theys (3) – 74 = 74 (+3)
T85 – Josh Lendach (5) – 75 = 75 (+4)
T51 – Kiefer Bulau (ind.) – 72 = 72 (+1)
120 – Quinton Metz (ind.) – 84 = 84 (+13)