SANTEE, Calif. --- Biola Men's Golf began the final tournament of the year on Monday as it completed the first 36 holes of play at the 2017 Golden State Athletic Conference Championships hosted by San Diego Christian.
 
The tournament is held at Carlton Oaks Golf Club, a course that's been right at the heart of San Diego for nearly 60 years and has won a World Golf Hall of Fame lifetime achievement award.

The course played at just a bit over 7,000 yards on Monday and will extend a bit for championship Tuesday as pin placement makes the course 7,125 yards.
 
The Eagles finished right in the thick of things following the first two rounds of three scheduled. After Monday's play the team combined for a score of 646 (+70) and is in fourth place of the six teams. The Eagles will need to make up 19 strokes in Tuesday's final round if they want to win the championship and advance to the NAIA National Championship tournament

"The course was playing tough at 7,100 yards with strong winds," said Head Coach Max Allen. "We were off to a great start in the first round but had a hard time on the back nine. There are places you cannot miss out here and we fell in a few of those places."
 
Austin Bishop was once again the headliner for the Eagles as he completed round one in 75 strokes and round two in 80 to sit at 11 over par and in fourth place on the individual leaderboard. He was tied for first through 27 holes, but now sits four strokes behind the leader from William Jessup, Johnnie Greco.

"Austin was exempt from trouble in round one," said Allen. "He only had one bad hole, a triple bogey, and was still leading. It was a clean first round. The back nine finally got to him a bit on the second round but he minimized the damage."
 
After the first round Biola saw itself in fifth place out of the six teams. They led the round for almost 11 holes, but then saw scores get higher as play went on to put them in a spot where they sat 10 strokes behind the leaders (The Master's) with a 323. The Eagles were the most consistent team in the field, shooting exactly the same in round two to make up their two-round total of 646.
 
While the team performance was identical between round one and two, the individual tallies varied fairly widely. While Bishop added five strokes between rounds one and two Cameron Bauer dropped a bunch of strokes to become the Eagles' second-best scorer for the day. He shot a round one 84 and followed it up with a season-best round of 77 to sit in a tie for 12^th overall at 17 over par (161).
 
The rest of the Eagles' scorers were Kaden Page (81 – 84 | +21), Dominic Ariondo (83 – 82 | +21) and Kyle McAbee (85 – 84 | +25). McAbee's scores were surprising due to his season-average being just under 78 strokes per round, so you should expect a bounce back from him on Tuesday, which will help the Eagles work their way back into contention.

"The guys are in the right frame of mind for tomorrow. We just have to maintain it throughout the round, especially on the back nine," said Allen.
 
The weather is forecast to be partly cloudy and in the 60s and 70s in Santee on Tuesday. The final 18 holes will determine the conference crown and which program gets to continue its season at TPC Deere Run in Illinois.