Freshman Albin Bergstrom is three shots off the lead after carding a 2-under 69 in Sunday’s opening round at Innisbrook Golf & Spa Resort.
USF began the pursuit of its fifth straight conference tournament title in third place and five shots away from leader SMU.
PALM HARBOR, Fla., APRIL 21, 2019 – Albin Bergstrom fired a 2-under 69 to lead the third-place Bulls in the opening round of The American Men’s Golf Championship on Sunday.
Bergstrom posted just the fifth first-round score under 70 in The American’s four seasons of championship action at Innisbrook Golf & Spa Resort’s Copperhead Course (par 71, 7,125 yards). The freshman from Ljunghusen, Sweden collected two of his three birdies during a 3-under run on the front nine and also eagled the par-4, 455-yard third hole.
Bergstrom is currently in second place at 2-under and three shots away from leader McClure Meissner of SMU, which also leads the 10-team field at 1-over. Defending champion USF carded a 6-over 290 team score Sunday and is well within striking distance of the lead with 36 more holes to play over the next two days.
USF’s second-best score of the opening round belonged to Kyle Flexsenhar. The junior from Lake Mary, Fla., is tied for 11th place after registering a 1-over 72 that included four birdies.
Ryoto Furuya shot a 3-over 74 to begin his first-ever conference tournament run as a Bull in a tie for 22nd place. The junior from Alpharetta, Ga., also has an eagle to his credit thanks to his impressive performance on the par-5, 575-yard 11th hole.
USF Score
| 3 | South Florida | 290 | 290 |
| 2 | Albin Bergstrom (1) | 69 | 69 |
| T11 | Kyle Flexsenhar (2) | 72 | 72 |
| T22 | Ryoto Furuya (3) | 74 | 74 |
| T29 | Luke Gifford (4) | 75 | 75 |
| T45 | Amadeo Figus (5) | 78 | 78 |
Quotable
Head coach Steve Bradley’s thoughts on the opening round with four Bulls teeing off at The American Championship for the first time:
“We were pretty tentative and I think we let the emotions affect next shots, which is something we’ve tried to work on all year. At the same time, you’ve got a difficult golf course. You’re playing for a conference championship and sometimes you think too far ahead of yourself and maybe not necessarily concentrating on the shot at hand. We had a couple guys make three-four bogeys right in a row. They’re better golfers than that and hopefully we do a better job of that tomorrow.”
Bradley on the Bulls being in a manageable spot heading into Monday’s second round:
“We’re five shots back on this golf course with 36 holes left. Obviously, we would have liked to play better today, but this golf course is difficult. No team broke par today and there were some good individual rounds. I think Albin hit the ball a lot better than he scored today and think he was frustrated on the greens. Kyle played solid. Ryo had a little bit of an up-and-down round. Luke got off to a poor start on the front nine and had a solid back nine, so hopefully he can carry that momentum forward. With Amadeo, hopefully we can figure something out this afternoon that gives him a little confidence going into tomorrow.”
Notables
- USF is chasing after its fifth consecutive conference tournament crown.
- Albin Bergstrom and Ryoto Furuya carded the field’s only two eagles in the first round.
- No team posted an under-par team score in Sunday’s opening round.
Up Next
Freshman Amadeo Figus will lead off USF’s second round from the first hole Monday at 8:13 a.m.
About USF Men’s Golf
USF men’s golf has captured the past four American Athletic Conference Championship titles in wire-to-wire fashion and made six straight trips to NCAA Regionals. The program is led by Steve Bradley, who has earned American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors the past four seasons. Follow @USFMGolf on Twitter for the latest information concerning the program.
