Byrd vaults into Top 5 at Puerto Rico Classic

Monday, February 18

Rio Grande, PR

All Day

Middle Tennessee

Puerto Rico Classic

2/18/2019 12:14:00 PM | Men's Golf

Senior matched career low 67 on day two

By: @MTAthletics

Round 2 Results

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Senior Marcus Byrd shined bright on the second day of the Puerto Rico Classic, firing a 5-under 67 to vault up the individual leaderboard into a tie for fifth, but the Blue Raiders as a whole stumbled in round two with a 9-over 297 to drop into 14^th.

"What a great round today from Marcus Byrd," Head Coach Mark McEntire said. "He made a nice jump up the leaderboard and has a chance to be low medalist tomorrow."

Byrd's 18-hole total in the second round at Rio Mar Country Club matches his career low and stands as the best individual round of the season for any Blue Raider thus far in 2018-19. His 4-under total has the Atlanta native just one stroke back of the lead entering Tuesday's final round.

"I was just able to hit some good shots today," Byrd said. "I knew we weren't going to make too many putts today with the greens being how they are, so it just helped out that I was able to hit some shots close, take advantage of my opportunities and do what I could for the team."

Middle Tennessee finds itself at 16-over par (295-297=592), just four strokes back of a jump into the Top 10 in the team standings, and remains ahead of No. 5 Alabama by five strokes with 18 holes left to play.

Sophomore Cooper Sears carded a 1-over 73 on day two to improve on his first round score by two strokes and sits 4-over (75-73=148) for the tournament, just a stroke ahead of junior Tanner Owens at 5-over (73-76=149).

Senior James Beckner turned in a 9-over 81 Monday while freshman Palmer Sadlowski carded a 10-over 82.

"We got another solid round from Cooper today, but I am disappointed that we weren't able to take advantage of the 67 with having to count a round in the 80s," McEntire added. "Now the goal for tomorrow is to get five balls in play and see if we can move up the board."

The Blue Raiders will look to move up the leaderboard on Tuesday with the third and final round teeing off at 5:30 a.m. CT. Live scoring can be found on Golfstat.com.