BYU and Utah kicked off the first round of the NCAA Golf Championship Friday with similar performances on the challenging Grayhawk Golf Club course in Scottsdale, Arizona.
First-round leader Vanderbilt finished with a three-shot lead over Oregon and Auburn at 2-over par 282.
No team in the field of 30 finished the day under par.
Maneuvering hard-fast greens and undulating fairway lies, BYU (T16) fired a team score of 15-over par 295 while Utah (T19), in its first appearance at the NCAA championship in 34 years, carded a 17-over par 297.
Both teams were in the morning groups.
Defending champion Pepperdine of the West Coast Conference alongside BYU posted a 12-over par round and is one stroke ahead of the Cougars heading into Saturday’s second round.
Harry Hillier of Kansas is tied with Brendan Valdes of Auburn for the individual first-round lead at 2-under par.
Utah’s Javier Barcos had the best round among players of the two instate schools with a 1-over par 71, followed by teammate Blake Tomlinson at 2-over 72.
BYU’s low rounds came from Cole Ponich and Tyson Shelley at 3-over par 73. Senior Carson Lundell was 4-over par and David Timmons finished 5-over.
Utah used the scores of Tristan Mandur (5-over) and Braxton Watts (9-over) to round out the team’s first-round aggregate.
Former Utah Amateur champion Preston Summerhays, playing for Arizona State, shot 3-over par for the Sun Devils (T9).
BYU played its Sunday third round on Thursday at 10-over par, a score that on Friday appeared to be a decent team score and would have registered in the Top 10 finishes in Friday’s first round.
The 72-hole stroke-play portion of the event ends on Monday. Match play begins Tuesday.