Florida Southern heads into today’s final round of the First Federal Southeastern Collegiate at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club with a commanding nine-stroke lead over the rest of the field.

Valdosta State enters the final day of play in fifth place, 19 shots behind the Mocs.

Florida Southern shot a two-round score of 575 to grab the team lead on Monday, with a pair of Mocs golfers holding two of the top three spots on the individual leaderboard.

Case Gard, the fourth-ranked golfer in the country, leads the field after an opening day 4-under 140. FSC’s Tim Crouch is third at 2-under-par.

Second-ranked Barry and eighth-ranked Columbus State are tied for second at eight-over-par. Georgia College and State is fourth, two shots ahead of VSU.

Monday’s round featured golfers fighting wind gusts up to 29 miles per hour, an element that turned the long Kingerlou course into a mammoth of a challenge.

“It has been very inconsistent, which makes it even tougher to play,” Valdosta State head coach Jared Purvis said. “We play in the wind, but whenever it is inconsistent like this — one minute it isn’t blowing and another it is howling — that is when it is difficult. The inconsistency really plays with your mind and the golf ball.”

Valdosta State’s Nate Anderson, the reigning Gulf South Conference champion, weathered the wind and several poor holes and finished his 36-hole day tied for 12th at 2-over. He enters today’s final round six shots back from Gard.

After shooting a 2-over in his first round, Anderson struggled on his opening three holes of his second round, recording back-to-back bogeys and a double bogey. The senior calmed down and managed to fight back to even par in the round, heading into his final hole of the day.

“That is the great thing about this group: they don’t let a couple of bad holes get to them. Nate is the prime example,” Purvis said. “He was 4 over and now he is even par with a chance to go 1-under. That is just the character of all of our guys.”

Anderson missed his birdie putt on No. 18, which would have moved him to 1-over par on the tournament.

Anderson’s roller coaster day, which featured him tied for 54th at one point, was exactly how the day went for many Blazer golfers.

Drew McGuire is tied for 30th after shooting a 74 and 76 in his two rounds, while Abdul Sihag is tied for 39th at 7-over par. Clark Hendrick is tied for 49th at 9-over par, after a 77 and 76.

“They are hanging in there,” Purvis said. “We are pretty far back from the lead but we still have (Tuesday) too.”

John Fordham started the day fighting wind, but managed to get to 1-under par through his first seven holes. Then he bogeyed three of his next five and he finished the opening round at even-par.

Fordham’s day got even worse in the second round. He double bogeyed and then quadruple bogeyed his first two holes. Three holes later he bogeyed and fell to the back of the field. From there, he managed two birdies and five more bogey’s.

His scores did not count for the Blazers.

Heading into today’s final 18-hole round, Purvis said while the Blazers’ chances of winning the tournament aren’t good, he still thinks the team can post a solid finish by calming down and reducing unforced errors.

“We just have to keep hanging in there,” Purvis said. “We made a lot of birdies today, which was great. That is something we don’t usually do a lot of. We just have to reduce the unforced errors. We made a lot of birdies that we followed up with a lot of bogeys.”

Weather could be a factor today. With players teeing off in the morning, rain could be a factor for the opening holes. From there, winds are expected to gust close to 20 miles per hour.