The St. Thomas Aquinas golf team finished in sixth place with a team score of 304 after the opening round of the St. John's Invitational held at Palmas del Mar in Perto Rico.  The Spartans were led by sophomore Chris Fitzpatrick's even par round of 72 and senior Patrick Schwarze who finished at one over par (73).

Head Coach Steven Ferrara was very happy with the Spartans day one perfomances.  Considering the gusting winds and hot conditions, the team had a difficult task in front of them.  In their first event back after a cold and long winter, Fitzpatrick and Schwarze led the charge posting rounds of 72 and 73 respectively.  Fitzpatrick started off slow and found himself three over through his first three holes.  After two pars, Fitzpatrick birdied the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th holes to get to one under.  He finished his back nine even par for a solid round of even par golf.  Schwarze came out of the gate firing with three consecutive birdies on 1, 2 and 3, but gave back strokes on the 4th and 6th hole to finish his front nine even par.  Schwarze played well through the back nine to finish with a one over.  Senior Brian Viola contributed to the team's good play carding a 76 while junior Sean Campbell rounded out the team's scoring with a round of 83.
 
The Spartans find themselves in sixth place after day one behind the UNC Greensboro (-4), Johnson & Whales (+6), St. John's (+8), Notre Dame (+11) and VCU (+11).  "It says a lot about this team to be able to come out and put up a solid day of golf after being off for over 3 months. I hope we can use this start to get us going for a very important spring season," remarked Ferrara.
 
The team will be back in action tomorrow morning at 7:30am playing with Notre Dame and Virginia Commonwealth.
 
Team and Individual score:  http://golfstat.com/live/final/DM3544.htm