WILMINGTON, Del. - Freshman DJ Honan carded a 77 and is tied for 16^th to lead the 9^th place Tigers in the opening round of the 2012 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Golf Championships being played on the Wilmington Country Club's 7,334-yard South Course.

"It's a spectacular golf course," said Tiger coach Brian Yaniger, "but it's incredibly difficult. Combined with 25 mile-per-hour winds everybody struggled."

Only one player in the field of 54 golfers came in under par. Marcus Dobias of VCU posted a 70. Georgia State's Damon Stephenson played even par, 71. Everybody else was over par.

Georgia State has the early team lead with a 300. Defending champ UNC Wilmington (301) is just one stroke back, followed by VCU (305), James Madison (306), Old Dominion (307), George Mason (308), William & Mary (310), Delaware (312) and Towson (314). Drexel (321) and Hofstra (321) are tied for 10^th.

"314 is not good," said Yaniger, "but under these conditions, it's not bad either. We gave up five shots on the 18^th hole. Take those away and we're seventh and just nine shots off the lead instead of 14."

Honan played the back nine in 1-under 35, tops for the Tigers on that side, and the front side in 7-over.

Sophomore Joe Gunerman, junior Ken Jee and senior Justin Koehler all shot 79 and are part of a log jam that is tied for 28^th. Sophomore Matt Fry is tied for 38^th with an 80.

The Tigers will try to chip away at the leaders when they tee of at 9:45 a.m. for the second round of the 54-hole event. Towson is paired with Delaware and William & Mary for Saturday.

"Our goal on Saturday will be to climb to the top five," said Yaniger. "If we do that then we can make a final run on Sunday."

Admission is free at the course, or fans can follow the action on Live Scoring available through caasports.com and golfstat.com.. "