Coyle Cooks on Day One at Visit Knox Collegiate

LOUDON, Tenn. – Kentucky men’s golf finished day one of the Visit Knox Collegiate at 6-under par as a team, good for fourth place among 16 teams after the first round of play at Tennessee National Golf Club (par 70, 7,201 yards).

The team score of 274 is tied for the seventh-best round for Kentucky since 2001-02 and is the lowest team number for an 18-hole round since the 2021-22 season.

Junior transfer Luke Coyle, playing his first round as a Wildcat, carded a career-best round of 66 (-4) and is tied for third out of the 90 players in the field. Coyle, who played his first two seasons at Alabama, beat his previous career low of 70 by four shots. The Campbellsville, Ky. native birdied his first two holes of the day and eagled No. 11 (par 5, 545 yards) to power an opening round that has him just two back of the day one leader, Chase Cline, of Charlotte.

Jacob Lang was the other Wildcat under par on Friday, registering a score of 68 (-2) behind four birdies on his outward nine. The sophomore birdied No. 1 (par 4, 484 yards), No. 2 (par 4, 475 yards) and No. 4 (par 4, 366 yards) to go 3-under through his first four holes. He held steady to post 68, tied for the lowest round of his collegiate career. Lang is inside the top 20 at T17 overall.

Senior captain Jack Schoenberger and freshman Cole Stockard both turned in even-par efforts and were counting scores for UK. Schoenberger made a team-best five birdies to help offset a pair of double bogeys, while Stockard went out in 32 and birdied his final hole of the day, No. 18 (par 4, 445 yards) to come in at level par in his first collegiate round. Both players are tied for 30th on the leaderboard.

Jacob Settles is tied for 68th after a 4-over day of 74, while individual competitor Charles Cauthen shot 75 (+5) and finds himself T76.

Host Tennessee leads the tournament at 15-under par. Round two will be played tomorrow with Kentucky teeing off from 9:48 a.m. to 10:32 a.m. alongside Iowa and Virginia Tech. Live scoring can be found on Scoreboard Powered by Clippd.

For the latest on UK Men’s Golf follow the Wildcats on X and Instagram @UKmensgolf, and online at ukathletics.com.