May 21, 2004

Sunriver, OR - The Stanford men's golf team carded a 298 today and are in 16th place overall after the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's West Regional at Sunriver Resort's Crosswater Club. Top-seeded UCLA shot a 5-under 283 and hold a one-stroke lead. The Bruins were led by Travis Johnson's first round 66, giving him a two-stroke lead over Toledo's Justin Bertsch. Ninth-seeded New Mexico is alone in second-place at 4-under 284.

No. 2 Arizona State, No. 5 Brigham Young, No. 12 Toledo and No. 4 USC all sit in a third-place tie at 286. No. 15 San Diego State is 1-under and seventh, and third-seeded Arizona was the lone team at even-par 288 and stands in eighth place overall.

Pepperdine, the region's tenth seed, fired a first-round 4-over 292 and is in ninth-place, while No. 8 Washington and No. 21 UC Riverside are knotted up in 10th-place at 5-over 293.

Johnson birdied six holes and tallied 12 pars to grab the first-round individual lead. Bertsch, who started on the tenth tee, followed an even-par front nine with four birdies on the back to pull within two strokes. Five players shot 3-under 69's, while nine golfers trail by four at 2-under 70.

The Cardinal were led by Kevin Blue, who is tied for 17th individually after firing a one-under par 71 today. Kyle Gentry is tied for 50 with a two-over par 74 while teammate Matt Savage is tied for 87th with a 76. Freshman Zack Miller is tied for 96th with a 77 and Matt Shin is tied for 132nd with an 82.

Pepperdine's Randy Creighton carded one of the 70's thanks to the day's only eagle on a par four. Creighton found the cup in two on the par 4, 427-yard eighth hole to finish the round four strokes back.

The average score among all golfers was 75.11 while six players recorded eagles.

Complete results are available at www.golfstat.com.