NINETY SIX, S.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) - No. 1 seed and defending champion Liberty shot an opening round 8-under par 280 to take a five-stroke lead over Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina in the 2012 Big South Men's Golf Championship, which is being contested at The Patriot Golf Club at Grand Harbor (par 72, 7,120 yards) in Ninety Six, S.C.  With the Buccaneers and Chanticleers tied for second at 3-under 285, Monday's first round featured three teams under par after the first 18 holes for the first time in Championship history.

Monday's action also saw five players card 60s and 10 players below par.  Liberty's Chase Marinell holds the first round lead with a 5-under par 67.  He played bogey-free all day and tallied birdies on holes 3, 5, 13, 14 and 18 to take a two-shot advantage.  Four players are tied for second at 69 -- Campbell's Vaita Guillaume, Liberty's Robert Karlsson, Charleston Southern's Ross Thomson and Coastal Carolina's Charlie Winegardner.  Guillaume's card was bogey-free with three birdies, while Karlsson was 2-under on the front and 1-under on the back.  He had six birdies to counter a double-bogey on the par 3 No. 4 hole.  Thomson rebounded from a 1-over 37 on the front nine with a 4-under 32 on the back.  Winegardner posted an eagle on the par 5, 580-yard No. 13 hole and finished with a birdie for his 69.

Gardner-Webb's Daniel Kim posted the lowest nine-hole score of the day with a 5-under 31 on the front nine that featured six birdies, two pars and one bogey.  He ended his afternoon tied for sixth with Winthrop's Cameron Bell at 2-under 70.

Liberty, which has now led four consecutive rounds of the Championship, shot its second-lowest round in the Conference tournament on Monday.  The Flames' 280 is also tied for the fifth-lowest 18-hole team round in the history of the Big South Men's Golf Championship.

Sitting in fourth-place behind Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina is Campbell at 289, followed by host Winthrop (291), Gardner-Webb (292), Radford (301) and High Point (305).  Presbyterian College finished the first round with a team aggregate score of 311, but the Blue Hose's results do not officially count in the individual or team standings due to its continuing transition process to Division I.

Second round action will begin Tuesday, April 17 with a double tee off No. 1 at 8:00am and No. 10 at 8:30am due to the potential for inclement weather in the afternoon.  The final round is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.  The event is free and open to the public, and can be followed online at www.BigSouthSports.com via GolfStat's "Live Scoring" feature.  Below are the current team scores and top 10 individual leaders: