CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – A lightning delay that stopped play for over two hours in the afternoon ultimately forced teams to halt play at The Honors Course as darkness fell during the second round of the NCAA Golf Championship .
Georgia Southern completed the front nine after initially teeing off on the tenth hole at 1:47 p.m. But at 3:13 p.m. lightning and severe thunderstorms in the area caused all play to freeze. Play resumed two hours later, but ultimately was called around 8:30 p.m. due to darkness.
All five Eagles completed at least 13 holes in Wednesday’s second round. The remaining holes in the round will be played beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern on Thursday.
All 15 teams that began play during the morning string were able to complete their rounds, while only six teams that started play in the afternoon completed their second rounds, leaving nine to finish play Thursday morning.
The top two teams after the first round completed their second rounds and remain atop the leaderboard. Florida State now holds sole possession of first following a 9-under par 279 second round performance for a 14-under 562 two-round total. Oklahoma State, after a 4-under day, stands in second at 567 (-9). Georgia Tech and Augusta State complete the sub-par scoring with 4-under and 1-under scores for third and fourth place. Florida and San Diego are tied for fifth at even-par 576, while Washington and Clemson are tied for seventh at 1-over 577 to round out the top eight teams. The Eagles currently sit in 28th place.
Spence Fulford continues to lead the Eagles in the second round through 14 holes. With birdies on Nos. 13 and 17, Fulford took the turn at 1-under and currently stands at 1-over following a pair of bogeys on the third and fifth holes. The senior will resume second round action tied for 33rd.
Logan Blondell sits 1-over through 13 holes and is tied for 55th. The junior traded two bogeys for two birdies on both the front and back nine but closed out the day making bogey on the third hole and par on the fourth.
Both Ryan Zabroske and Florian Sander stand tied for 124th at the moment. Zabroske moved to 4-over following a birdie on the fifth hole and par on the sixth, where he finished for the day. Sander, after a rocky start to the afternoon, turned at 4-over and immediately fired two birdies to open the back nine. The redshirt-freshman finished the day with a bogey on five for a 3-over tally.
Senior Matt Deal sits at 2-over and is tied for 129th. At one point early in the afternoon, Deal dipped to 2-under with a pair of birdies on 12 and 14, but three late bogeys on the back nine leave the senior at 2-over through 16 holes.
Play will resume at 7 a.m. Thursday morning with the nine teams finishing round two. Round three, originally scheduled to start at 7 a.m. off the back nine, has been pushed back to accommodate the conclusion of round two.
Live scoring will be conducted at golfstat.com. The 30-team field will be cut to eight teams after the third round of medalist play on Thursday. The final top eight will begin match-play on Friday in a single-elimination format. The title match will be played on Sunday between the final two teams. The NCAA individual medalist will be crowned after the three rounds of stroke play on Thursday.
