David Ford opened with a 67 in the morning round and Austin Greaser shot a 66 in the second round on Monday afternoon to lead the University of North Carolina to second place by three shots after 36 holes at Valspar Collegiate Invitational at the Floridian National Golf Club in Palm City, Florida.
No. 4-ranked Carolina shot 9-under 275 in the first round and 6-under the second. Led by Ludwig Aberg, the world’s highest-ranked amateur who shot 10-under 132, third-placed Texas Tech (277-273) leads the tournament at 18 under, three strokes ahead of the Tar Heels.
No. 7 Florida State was the first-round leader after a 12-under 272, but slipped to third, five strokes behind UNC after a second-round 286.
Second-ranked Arizona State is fourth at 9 under and defending NCAA champions and 10th-ranked Texas is tied with Ohio State for fifth at 5 under.
Ford started the day with bogeys on his first two holes, but birdied four and shot the 530-yard 13th hole to finish the first round with a 4-under 67. in the second round and closed with a 3-under 68 to head into Tuesday’s final round tied for second at 7-under 135.
Greaser, the No. 2 ranked PGA Tour University player behind Aberg, shot 70 in the morning before birdying eight en route to a 5-under 66 in the afternoon to earn a share of fifth place at 6-minus 136.
Ryan Burnett (69-72) is tied for 25th at 141, Peter Fountain (71-72) is tied for 31st at 143 and defending medalist Dylan Menante (69-77) is tied for 52nd at 146.
Aberg holds the 36-hole lead at 10 under 132 after rounds of 65-67. Ford is tied with Georgia Southern’s Ben Carr and Houston’s Wolfgang Glawe at 7 under.
The third and final round will take place on Tuesday.
