Eric Gullicks Shoots a 78 in Round 1 of NJCAA Golf Championship

When sophomore men's golfer Eric Gullicks stepped on the course today it was the first time sense October he had played competitive golf. It is a lot to ask of anyone to step up to that first tee at the NJCAA Men's Golf Championship and compete after an eight month hiatus. Gullicks isn't most people though, the sophomore showed the poise of a veteran player today when he went out and shot a 78 in his opening round.

At one point throughout the round Gullicks reeled off 7 straight pars to keep him hovering around +2. All afternoon Gullicks was out there hunting for birdie putts, he just couldn't get them to fall. He said, "I just couldn't get the putter rolling today, I felt overall though that today went really." He continued on to say, "I had one bad hole, but I was pleased with a 78. Hopefully tomorrow I will hit the ball well and get some putts to drop." The hole Gullicks is referring to was #16 where he struggled his way to a quadruple bogey, his worst hole of the day. However, Gullicks is staying positive and believes, "There is definitely a lower score out there for me."

Head Golf Coach Shane Hersch said that, "Eric played his best golf of the three days we've been here this morning." He continued that tomorrow they hope to, "…build on today's success and shoot even better tomorrow. We'll be looking for those birdie putts to drop tomorrow."

On the day Gullicks shot a 38 on the front 9, a 40 on the back 9, which gave him an overall score of 78. That was good enough for +6 and tied for 66^th overall out of 120 golfers. Gullicks will tee off tomorrow at 12:51pm(ET).

Updates will be available on Facebook at LRSC Athletics and on Twitter @LRSCRoyals and @LRSCGolf. Live scoring and pairing will be available here at: http://www.mccaa.org/f/17/3/Golf/2016_NJCAA_Division_II_Golf_National.php

Go Eric and Go Royals!