Men's golf in second at tourney

Adam F. Jarrold Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman Derek Gillespie stands in a second place tie after the first day of competition in the PING Arizona Intercollegiate Tournament. The Wildcats are in second place in the team standings.

The Wildcats finished the first two rounds at 7-over par 575, putting them four strokes behind Southern Cal on the par 71, 6,882-yard Raven Golf Club at Sabino Springs.

The story of the day however, was Arizona State's Scott Johnson, who tied the course record by carding a second-round 6-under par 65, including eight birdies.

The score moved him into a second place tie in the individual standings with Gillespie. John Rollins of Virginia Commonwealth and Roger Tambellini of USC, are tied for the individual lead at 3-under par 139.

Sophomore Andy Barnes of Arizona shot an afternoon round 66 to finish the day at even par and tied for seventh place. Junior Rory Sabbatini finished the outing in a tie for 20th place at 4-over par, while Todd Rose shot a 5-over par 147, good enough to put him in a tie for 23rd place overall.

Gary Matthews finished at 12-over par 154 after shooting a disappointing second round 75. Matthews had a legitimate shot to shatter the course record after shooting a front-nine score of 31, but ballooned to 44 on the back side after scrambling for a nine on the 11th hole, and a seven on the closing hole. Matthews is in alone in 54th place overall.

New Mexico finished the first two rounds in third place at 11-over 579, followed by Virginia Commonwealth at 15-over par, ASU at 17-over, Georgia Tech at 19-over and North Carolina State at 20-over par.

A strong finish in the final round today would help UA to capture the title which it won last year by defeating the Tiger Woods-led Stanford Cardinal team by 14 shots.

Arizona assistant coach Tom Brill said he hopes to see his players come back with an impressive final round showing to keep the title in Tucson.

"We are playing well right now," Brill said. "If we can avoid the big numbers on some of the tougher holes we will be fine tomorrow."

The 11th hole played havoc on the majority of the players today, and officials at the course said that the course seemed to be playing about five or six shots tougher than last year, which makes the scores that much more impressive.

The tournament concludes today with 18 holes beginning at 8 a.m.