Senior Will Strickler (Charlottesville, Va.) shot two-under par 70 in the opening round to lead the University of Florida men’s golf team to a first round score of 290 (+2). The Gators are in fifth place heading into the weekend at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship in Las Vegas.

Strickler is in seventh place, just three shots off the lead, while fellow senior Billy Horschel (Grant, Fla.) is tied for eighth at one-under par 71.

Teeing off on the tenth hole, Strickler finished his first nine holes at one-under par. He pushed it to three-under with back-to-back birdies on holes six and seven before making bogey on the eighth hole.

Horschel shot even par through his first nine holes, and carded one birdie with no bogeys after the turn.

“Will went out first and played well all day long,” said head coach Buddy Alexander. “Billy was his usual self today and Max had a good showing in his first start for us.”

Freshman Max Kieffer (Duesseldorf, Germany) shot two-over par 74 in his first appearance in the team lineup and is tied for 23rd. Junior Tim McKenney (Scottsdale, Ariz.) rounded out the day’s scoring with a three-over par 75, good enough for a share of 33rd place.

Senior Toby Ragland (Jacksonville, Fla.) finished at five-over par 77 and is tied for 52nd.

“We’re in the hunt and hope to improve and move up the leader board tomorrow,” said Coach Alexander.

Clemson is on top of the leader board at six-under par 282. Four players are tied at five-under par for the individual lead.

Tee times will begin at 8:00 local time on Saturday. Live scoring is available online at www.GolfStatResults.com.

Team Results

1. Clemson, 283 (-5)

2. UNLV, 285 (-3)

3. Arizona, 287 (-1)

4. Georgia Tech 289, (+1)

5. FLORIDA, 290 (+2)

6. Oklahoma State, 291 (+3)

7. Southern California, 295 (+7)

8. UCLA, 296 (+8)

9. California, 298 (+10)

10. Charlotte, 300 (+12)

11. Auburn, 302 (+14)

12. Georgia, 303 (+15)

13. Texas A&M, 308 (+20)

14. Arizona State, 309 (+21)

15. Texas, 312 (+24)

Individual Top-10

T1. Matthew Giles, Southern California – 67 (-5)

T1. Ben Martin, Clemson – 67 (-5)

T1. Colby Smith, UNLV – 67 (-5)

T1. Cameron Tringale, Georgia Tech – 67 (-5)

5. Tyler Neal, Arizona – 68 (-4)

6. Phillip Mollica, Clemson – 69 (-3)

7. Will Strickler, Florida – 70 (-2)

T8. Rickie Fowler, Oklahoma State – 71 (-1)

T8. Billy Horschel, Florida – 71 (-1)

T8. Jonathan Khan, Arizona – 71 (-1)

T8. Kyle Stanley, Clemson – 71 (-1)

T8. Minghao Wang, Georgia Tech – 71 (-1)

Florida Results

7. Will Strickler – 70 (-2)

T8. Billy Horschel – 71 (-1)

T23. Max Kieffer – 74 (+2)

T33. Tim McKenney – 75 (+3)

T52. Toby Ragland – 77 (+5)