March 5, 2012
Round 1 Leaderboard
DADE CITY, Fla. - The Villanova golf team was back in stroke play action for the first time since mid-October at the USF Invitaional being played at the par-72 Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club in Dade City, Florida. The Wildcats are coming off of the BIG EAST Match Play event three weeks ago where they played well in going 1-2 and they looked to carry over the good play into the 54-hole tournament, where the Wildcats played well last year.
Villanova junior Michael Kania led the Wildcats to a ninth place finish after round one with a 299 (+11) out of the 17 teams competing. Kania shot a 1-under 71 in the first round of the event, despite the windy and slightly chilly Florida conditions. The impressive opening round puts Kania in a tie for 7th place, six shots behind UCF's Jose Joia.
Senior Brian Colbert carded an opening round 75 (+3) to place himself in a tie for 35th in the highly competitive field. Junior Steve Skurla also played well with a 76 (+4) which puts him in a tie for 43rd.
Juniors Jimmy Johnston (77; +5) and Derek Jones (84; +12) finished in a tie for 50th and 87th, respectively, to round out the Wildcat top-five.
Villanova is 15 shots back of UCF, who currently sits in first place, however, the Wildcats are just four shots back of fifth place, and eight shots back of fourth.
Round two will be played tomorrow with round three coming on Tuesday. All five Wildcats will go off ten minutes apart from each other, starting at 9:55 a.m. through 10:35 p.m.
