SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Hunter Bott vaulted to the top of the individual leaderboard and the UTSA men’s golf team is only three shots out of the team lead after the second round of The Carolina Cup on Monday at Carolina Country Club (par 72/7,071 yards).
Bott fired a 5-under-par 67 to claim a two-shot lead through 36 holes of the 54-hole tournament, while the Roadrunners are part of a three-way tie for third place three strokes behind day-two leader Winthrop.
After opening the week with a 2-over 74 on Sunday, Bott turned in the second-best scorecard of his UTSA career on Monday. The senior all-conference performer used seven birdies to help climb 16 places into sole possession of first place at 3-under 141.
Starting on hole No. 10, he posted back-to-back birdies followed by three pars before countering his first bogey of the day with two straight birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to help him close out the back side with a 3-under 33. He then added birdies on the 185-yard, par-3 third, 545-yard, par-5 fourth and 580-yard, par-5 sixth holes en route to a 34 on the front to give him a two-shot advantage ahead of Winthrop’s Nick Mayfield (70-73—143).
Bott’s 67 marked the 12th sub-70 round of his UTSA career and it ranks behind only a career-best 7-under 65 he logged in the second round of the 2021 Jim Rivers Intercollegiate.
UTSA has a share of third place with American Athletic Conference foes North Texas and UAB at 16-over 592. The Roadrunners opened with a 297 and followed that with a 295 today to move into striking range of Winthrop (+13). Kennesaw State is in second at 15-over par while James Madison is in sixth (+19) in the 15-team field.
David Harrison is in a tie for 20th at 4-over 148. The senior from Byron Nelson High School posted his second consecutive 2-over 74 on Monday behind four birdies.
Jack Wehman followed a 76 in the opening round with a 75 on the strength of three birdies, moving into a tie for 33rd at 7-over 151.
Brock Blais and Christian Rodriguez round out the UTSA lineup in 42nd (73-80—153) and 60th (78-79—157), respectively.
The final round is slated for Tuesday and UTSA will tee off from No. 1 starting at 7:55 a.m. CT. Live scoring will be available at https://spikemark.com/tournament-leaderboard/7614716555054572232/scoring/player and a live video stream can be found at https://www.gklive.tv/event/2023-carolina-cup-invitational.
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