MARICOPA, Ariz. \u2013 Grand Canyon men’s golf completed round two of the National Golf Invitational Saturday afternoon where par seemed too high of a score on a day where the squad shot a 20 under, 268.<\/p>\n
That 268 put the Lopes ahead by eight strokes over Missouri in first place, totaling a 37 under after two days at the Ak-Chin Southern Dunes course.<\/p>\n
The course has favored the Lopes in recent seasons, seeing some of the lowest scores in program history including a 64 by junior Gavin O’Neill<\/a> in yesterday’s first round. GCU tallied 31 birdies with an eagle for good measure and lead the 10-team field with 54 birdies for the week.<\/p>\n The birdie train began at the hands of sophomore Nixon Lauritzen<\/a>, who in his first collegiate round ever in the fall of 2024, tied the program single round low of 63 at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes. The California native finished with a second round 65 with an electrifying front nine that included six birdies.<\/p>\n His back nine was a continuation of the front, totaling birdies on No. 10 and 11 for an eventual five straight between holes 7-11. He birdied No. 13-14 and was 9 under through 14 holes, gaining closer to Wyoming’s Brody Leid, who leads the tournament at 14 under.<\/p>\n Lauritzen’s round ended with a double bogey on the par 4, 18th, but didn’t take away from having more birdies (10) than pars (6) and moving into solo second with the final round tomorrow.<\/p>\n With one 7 under round in the books, the Lopes added another in sophomore Erik Rengardt<\/a>. After a 1 over first round, Rengardt went 2 under on the front nine with a 5 under back nine that included an eagle and three straight birdies between holes 15-17, all of which were a different par (4,5,3). The Swede had the biggest jump of any player in the field, moving up 24 spots to a tie for 12th at 6 under for the tournament.<\/p>\n O’Neill’s day saw four birdies and a 2 under total, putting himself 10 under for the tournament and right there at the top of the leaderboard in a third-place position, one shot back of Lauritzen.<\/p>\n