Rio men set for opening round of NAIA Championship

Rio Grande/NAIA Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande men's golf team will be making its first-ever appearance on the national scene Tuesday morning when it participates in the 72nd Annual NAIA Men's Golf National Championship at the Dalton Golf and Country Club in Dalton, Ga.
     Head coach Lauren Lee's squad punched its ticket to the national event by outlasting West Virginia University-Tech in a two-hole playoff to claim the River States Conference Tournament championship.
     The RedStorm roster will include senior Whit Byrd (Pomeroy, OH), junior Nicolas Gonzalez (Medellin, Columbia), sophomore Rodrigo Portilla (Sevilla, Spain) and the freshman duo of Alfonso Baro Rosas (Cancun, Mexico) and Juan Carlos Gil Perez (Malaga, Spain).
     Tuesday's action with the first wave at 7:30 a.m. EDT on Hole 1 and first pairings off Tee 10 twenty minutes later. The afternoon groups will start at 12:30 p.m. off the first tee and 12:40 p.m. on Hole 10.
     For Wednesday's round, the groupings will flip afternoon and morning time slots, as well as start on the different half of the course than their previous day.
     After two full rounds have been completed, the field will be reduced to the top 15 teams (plus ties) and 6 individuals who have not already made the cut with their teams (plus ties).
     The 156-player field features 30 teams and six individual qualifiers.