Erie, Colo. / Colorado National Golf Club-The season of firsts continues for Robert Morris University senior golfer C.G. Mercatoris (Brookville, Pa. / Brookville) after the Northeast Conference unveiled its 2011 postseason honors. The first Colonial player to receive an invitation to play in the NCAA Championship, Mercatoris became the school's first NEC Player of the Year Thursday as well.
In the previous 20 seasons of men's golf, Robert Morris golfers accounted for six individual tournament titles. Mercatoris won four tournaments this season alone, including a two-stroke victory at the NEC Men's Golf Championships. Now a three-time All-NEC selection, Mercatoris had the best stroke average of any NEC golfer at 72.90.
The senior entered eight tournaments this season, winning half of those and finishing in the top ten of all but two events. He set records for 36 and 54 hole totals relative to par. He fired a three-under at the two-round RMU Holiday Inn Colonial Classic event. Six months later, he was four-under after three rounds at the Mount St. Mary's Spring Invitational. Mercatoris won both of those events.
Mercatoris is currently in Erie, Colo., in the NCAA Colorado Regional where his first round was suspended after 15 holes at Colorado National Golf Club. Cold temperatures and a thunderstorm suspended play in the middle of this afternoon.
The senior didn't show signs of being nervous in his first NCAA appearance with a birdie on 442-yard par-four opening hole. He scored five consecutive pars before moving to two under with a four on the par-five seventh hole that measures 576 yards.
Four more pars came before Mercatoris hit his first bump in the road, taking a six on the 564-yard 12th hole. He had just holed out for par on the longest hole in NCAA tournament history, the 696-yard 15th hole, when play was suspended. He is tied for 15th, ahead of 11 players that entered the event ranked in the Golfstat Top 100.
Zakhai Brown leads the field at seven-under with two holes left in his opening round.
