ATHENS, GA--Winthrop junior golfer Kamito Hirai shot a 5-over par 76 on the first day of the 54-hole 2012 NCAA Men's Golf Championship Regional that is being held at the University of Georgia Golf Course.

Hirai is among four individual players from Big South member schools who are participating in the Athens Regional and is just the second Winthrop golfer to receive an invitation to a NCAA regional.  Matt Johnson represented Winthrop in the 2005 regional at Yale University.  He will tee off at 9:50 Friday morning and at the same time on Saturday.  Jacobo Pastor and David Denlinger of Charleston Southern and Sebastian Soderberg from Coastal Carolina were also among the 10 individual players who were given at-large invitations.

For most of the day Hirai handled the par 71, 7,253-yard layout without problems, but he did run into some trouble as bogied No. 2, No. 9, and No. 12 and double bogied the Par 3 13th when his tee shot found the water in front of the green.