Junior golfer Curtis Reed has 12 rounds of par or better and five rounds in the 60s this season. | Courtesy of UH Athletics

Junior golfer Curtis Reed has played well at the Conference USA Championship tournament each time he has competed there since his first season at UH.

As a freshman, Reed finished fifth with a -2 in Texarkana, Ark. During his sophomore season, he shot a first round 69 and was tied for second place before a tough second and third round dropped him to a 20th place finish.

This season, Reed is more than in contention — he’s tied for the lead with a -4 score after shooting a first round 68.

He said the Texarkana Country Club, the course where the C-USA Championship tournament is held, fits his skill set.

“Well, we’ve played this golf course the last two years. It’s a course I feel comfortable at. It’s short. You can’t overpower the course,” Reed said. “I just got off to this good start and need to continue the momentum. I just have to continue using the game plan.”

Reed played through some early adversity before finishing the front nine strong.

He bogeyed the first and sixth holes before sinking an eagle on the 525-yard par-5 seventh hole, grabbing birdie on the eighth hole and saving par on the ninth.

On the back nine, Reed converted his fifth birdie of the day on the par-3 206-yard 13th hole. After Sunday, Reed has 12 rounds of par or better and five rounds in the 60s this season.

Reed said he’ll need to have success with the putter to stay on top of the leaderboard.

“It’s key because the greens are firm and fast. You’re going to hit a lot of greens and miss a lot of greens. They’re narrow. Whoever putts the best will win.”

As a team, the Cougars are in third place with a -2 score.

UH got off to a slow start but rallied back, said golf director Jonathan Dismuke.

“We didn’t hit the ball well, but we hung in there and had a good finish. We haven’t got off to the best starts this year, but one of the things that we identified was that he had to do a better job of hanging in those rounds no matter how things were going,” Dismuke said. “We did a tremendous job of that today.”

The Cougars have three players among the top 20 competitors on the leaderboard. Sophomore Roman Robledo and freshman Vincent Martino finished the first round at even-par 72. Martino finished with four birdies in his round, including one on the 17th hole to tie with Robledo for 14th place.

“Roman and Vince got a lot out of their rounds today,” Dismuke said. “They didn’t play their best golf by any means but found a way to put up a good score. … I’m really proud of those guys.”

Reed said he expects the Cougars will continue to have success during the final two days of the tournament.

“We think we’re the favorites. That’s what you have to do to win. We want to win badly. We believe it. We’re ready to win,” Reed said.