EL PASO, Texas – The thaw was off the clubs for the Western New Mexico University men’s golf team as they ripped off a seven-under 277 to lead the Edward Jones’ Cactus Thaw after the first round took place Sunday.
The Mustangs utilized four players shooting par or minus scores to move to the top of the leaderboard. The 277 is eight-strokes ahead of New Mexico State’s B Team. Midland CC (292), UTEP B Team (303), NMMI (305) and Fort Lewis (308) round out the six-team field.
Former Mustang and current NMSU Aggie Patrick Beyhan leads the field with a seven-under 64. He holds a three-shot lead over WNMU’s Harry Wetton (Bedford, England/The Bedford School).
Wetton paced the Mustangs with his 67 where he hit five total birdies, including four straight on the back-nine. Sitting in third right behind Wetton is teammate Ben Skinner (Hertfordshire, England/Lorretto Academy). Skinner shot under-par on both the front and back-nine to card a three-under 68. He shot even on every hole except posting a birdie on the front-nine and two more on the back-nine. Calum Hill (Kinross, Scotland/Kinross HS) and Deryk “Buzz” Perales are tied for seventh with even scores of 71. Hill trimmed his front-nine plus-two 37 with a back-nine 34 to help even his score. He had five total birdies on the day, with four on the back-nine. Perales followed nearly the same script as Hill going plus-two on the front-nine, before capping with a two-under 34 on the back-nine. Perales carded four total birdies, with three coming on the back-nine. Thomas Neve (Epsom, England/Cams Hill School/Merrist College) rounds out the top-five for the Mustangs with a four-over 75 to tie for 21st.
WNMU also had a pair of individuals in Ross White (Dollar, Scotland/Kinross HS) and Daniel Young (Cheshire, England/Eaton Bank HS). White is tied for 16th with a two-over 73 and Young is tied for 18th with a three-over 74. White had no birdies but collected an eagle on the par-five 11th hole. Young had three birdies, all on the front-nine
