Van Der Wath in Top 5, Jags enter Round 2 above cutline at NAIA Men’s Golf Championship

DALTON, Ga. – Since the No. 15-ranked UHV men's golf team arrived in Dalton on Saturday for the 72nd NAIA Men's Golf Championship, junior Joshua Van Der Wath has been meticulous at practice for his first start in the national tournament.

That showed on Tuesday with the Johannesburg, South Africa, native carding an opening-round one-under 71 at Dalton Golf and Country Club to sit inside the top 5 at T-3, one shot off the lead.

He paced the Jaguars to a team score of 305, which put UHV at 13th after the first day – inside the cutline of the top 15 teams heading into moving day on Wednesday.

"Josh has the ability to lock in and that's what he did," said head coach Garrett Adair. "He started off strong today – had a few unlucky breaks on the back nine, but finished strong and we needed it today. We needed it with a couple of high scores out there. But, that's Josh. He's had a chip on his shoulder not being able to play last year (at nationals) and he's been a leader this year. I look for him to continue to do that tomorrow."

Starting on the back nine, which featured eight of the toughest holes on the course, Van Der Wath went bogey-free to make the turn to the front with a three-under 33.

He got as low as four-under after a fourth birdie at the 568-yard Par 5 second.

"I think it builds a lot of confidence in me," Van Der Wath said. "It showed me, if I do the right things on this course, it's still very scorable and it makes me excited for the rest of the week because I know I can go lower and play better."

Despite the difficulty of the course – only xx golfers in the field of 153 managed rounds under par in the first round – the Jaguars picked up plenty of confidence after they completed the first round.

Enzo Dakiche (T-60) closed with seven pars on the second nine to turn in a 77 in the opening round while Nathan Biais (T-74) had 14 pars on his card, including a 30-foot par putt on his final hole, to shoot 78.

Paul Chopin (T-83) shot a 79, which included a one-over first nine. Hayden Hardwick (84, T-139) had the best in-round adjustment, going two-over on the second nine.

"The biggest thing tomorrow is, we have to put the ball in play," Adair said. "The greens are tough out here, but we have good short games. I like where we're sitting and we've got a group of guys who don't give up. That's something I've been striving for with them – you never know what a good score is going to be. So we're going to put the ball in play tomorrow, keep it in front of us and see where we end up."

The Jaguars tee off at 12:30 p.m. central time on Wednesday for the second round.