Oregon junior Daniel Miernicki shot a 10-under 62 — a career-best round by five strokes — to take the individual lead in the first round of the Amer Ari Invitational, held at the Waikoloa Kings’ Course in Waikoloa, Hawaii.
Miernicki has a four-shot lead over San Jose State’s Matt Hovan and USC’s Jeffrey Kang and Sam Smith through the first day of the three-day tournament.
Senior Jack Dukeminier is tied for 21st after shooting a 2-under-par 70, and sophomore Robbie Ziegler (T-32nd , 1-under-par 71) is the third Duck in the red after Wednesday’s round.
Also competing for Oregon are senior Sean Maekawa (T-42nd, even-par 72), junior Andrew Vijarro (T-76th, 2-over-par 74), senior Eugene Wong (T-100th, 4-over-par 76), senior Isaiah Telles (T-108th, 6-over-par 78) and freshman Ben Itterman (T-110th, 7-over-par 79).
Oregon sits alone in fifth place in the team standings with a collective 7-under-par 281 on the day from its top scorers. The Ducks are 10 shots behind leader USC and three shots behind Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State, both tied for second place.
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