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LUBBOCK, Texas - Louisiana Tech junior Victor Lange enters the final round of the NCAA Regional at 2-under-par 140 and tied for 17th after carding a 1-under-par round Friday at The Rawls Course in Lubbock.

Currently tied for 17th, he will enter the final round six shots back of Cal's K.K. Limbhasut, the individual leader at 8-under-par.

"He played some really good golf," head coach Jeff Jenkins said of Lange's round. "He had a couple lost shots here and there but at the end of the day he gave himself a lot of opportunities, shot one under par and kept patient the whole time even though some putts didn't fall in. He posted a solid score despite very windy conditions."

While the back nine was problematic for Lange in the first round, he flipped his fortunes Friday to go 2-under-par on the back nine as he started the round on Hole 10.

The highlight of the day came on 17 as he carded an eagle on the par-5, 630-yard hole. On the next hole, the par-5, 578-yard hole 18 - he sent his fairway shot into the bunker on the far side of the green. But a good chip put him within 10 feet of the pin and he drained the next putt for birdie.

"Great up and down from the back bunker," Jenkins said of Lange's play on 18. "He hit a great shot over the water, hitting a three-wood over a par-5 you have to hit it over the green if anything. It was a great up and down from the bunker and it was a sweet birdie."

While going for the bunker was not quite exactly what Lange wanted to do in that situation, aiming for the ball to land past the pin on the back part of the green was in the game plan all along.

"It was kind of my strategy to hit it slightly long and get it on the back of the green there," explained Lange. "It ended up rolling through the green into the bunker and I didn't have a great lie so I tried to hit a splash shot to the pin and it ended up landing softly on me, leaving me 10 to 15 feet from the pin. Then I just drained it which was really nice after the eagle. That was awesome."

While Hole No. 17 was the easiest hole on the course Friday with an average of 4.57 shots carded on the par-5, Lange was one of only two golfers to card an eagle on the hole during the second round.

After the turn, Lange kept the momentum going with a birdie on the par-4, 368-yard hole 1. That gave him a 4-under-par score over three holes.

"Momentum was on my side there but it is not easy out here," said Lange. "There is so much wind and a lot can happen. You are going to pick up some bogeys and I just didn't have a clean enough round, if you can call it that with too many mistakes here and there. But I hit a lot of good shots and there were a lot of positives. It feels like I am playing as well as anybody in the field at the moment, I just need things to fall my way."

While the back nine posed problems for Lange Thursday, it was the front nine that was challenging for him Friday. After his birdie on hole No. 1, Lange would bogey a pair of par threes on the front nine.

"Where the pin is, six steps behind it and it falls off real steep but eight or so steps in front of it, the ball rolls back into the bowl and you are hitting a 6-iron into the wind," Jenkins said of Hole No. 3. "A very difficult hole, he hit a good shot but it just went over the green barely. A great shot to just four or five feet but a downhill cross-wind putt missed it. That is just going to happen with as difficult as these par-threes are."

The par-3s on Hole Nos. 3 and 6 were two of the hardest par-3s out there Friday. On Hole 3, there were 26 bogeys and three double bogeys as the field averaged 3.37 strokes on the hole. Meanwhile on Hole 6, the average was 3.15 strokes with 12 bogeys and three double bogeys.

Emblematic of the final nine for Lange, he had a chance at a birdie on Hole 10 but his shot stopped two inches short of the cup. He tapped it in for par.

Friday's action came with a 4 ½ hour delay to start due to overnight thunderstorms dropping several inches of rain on the course then an extra 12 minute delay as Lange's starting hole - No. 10 - was playing slow.

"You can respond in two ways, you can take it negatively or you can take it positively," Lange said of the delays. "I just did my daily routine this morning where I basically had a day of practice before I played. I felt good going in to the round, really good. I had a good drive session, good putting session, good range. I felt really good going into the round, which was nice."

Weather permitting, Lange will tee off at 10:04 Saturday on Hole 10 in the third and final round of the NCAA Lubbock Regional. He will be paired with Charleston Southern's Austin James and Texas-Pan American's Nicolas Platret.

Saturday's round will be the final deciding 18 holes on which teams and which individual will advance to the NCAA Championships. The top five teams and the top individual not on one of those five teams will move on to The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida for the NCAA Championships.

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