The WSU men’s golf team is off to strong start at the end of the first round of the John A. Burns Intercollegiate at the Wailua Golf Course.

WSU (+2, 290) is tied for third place with Arizona and is trailing California by two strokes (288), placing them in second. No. 7 ranked Texas is leading all scores with (-2, 276).

In-state rival Washington is currently tied with No. 24 Virginia, posting a (+8, 296) on the day.

Junior Nick Mandall led all Cougars, with a score of 70, 2-under par. Mandall is currently tied for fifth and trailing the leader Beau Hossler of Texas (-5, 67) by three strokes.

Mandall did most of his damage on the front nine by scoring three birdies. Mandall played very consistent and pared every hole on the back nine.

Sophomore Derek Bayley also played very well. Bayley carded five birdies on the day. If it weren’t for a few mistakes on the 16th hole, where Bayley posted a double bogie, Bayley may have tied Mandall with a score of 70. Bayley is tied for 16th with nine other players after shooting par (72).

The rest of the team is not far behind, with freshman Aaron Whalen scoring (+1, 73), freshman AJ Armstrong (+3, 75), and sophomore Zach Anderson (+4, 76).

All WSU players playing in the tournament are either sophomores or freshmen.

“We have a lot of gold left and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s round,” said WSU Head Coach Garrett Clegg via wsucougars.com.

The tournament starts the second of its three rounds Thursday at 10:30 a.m. PT. Live scoring updates will be available on golfstat.com.

Reporting by Ryan Siefkes