GOLFERS FINISH SEVENTH IN ARIZONA

Monday, February 2

Tucson, Ariz.

TBA

Colorado

All Rounds

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

February 03, 2004 | Men's Golf

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

TUCSON, Ariz. ? The University of Colorado men's golf team recorded one of its top opening spring performances in recent memory here Tuesday, as the Buffaloes finishes seventh in the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate.

The seventh place finish by the Buffs, ranked No. 34 in the nation by Golfweek (No. 39 by GolfStat), was their second best effort to open the spring portion of the schedule since 1992, and their fourth best in Mark Simpson's 28-year tenure as head coach. It arguably came in one of the tougher fields CU has opened the spring against, with nine of the 14 teams here were in the nation's top 50 and the Buffs defeating two of them.

Host and No. 47 Arizona led from wire-to-wire, as the Wildcats posted a 28-under team score of 824 and defeated No. 20 New Mexico by 10 strokes. No. 8 Arizona State was a distant third (843, -9), while Colorado finished 7-over for the 54 holes with an 859 total, tied for the fourth best team score in school history on a par-71 course.

Sophomore Kenny Coakley tied for 18th individually to pace the Buffaloes, as he shot a 68 to wrap up the second round, completed first thing Tuesday due to darkness cutting play short on Monday. He then closed with a 69 to become the first Buff this season in five meets to record back-to-back rounds in the 60s.

Senior Kane Webber tied for 24th as he shot a two-over 73 on the 6,793-yard, par-71 Arizona National Country Club layout for an even-par 213, while sophomore Edward McGlasson tied for 35th with a 3-over 216 total, a scorecard that included a sextuple bogey 10 in the first round and a quadruple bogey 9 in the final round.

“I'm certainly not displeased with a seventh place finish, coming out of the snow against a tough field on a tough golf course,” CU head coach Mark Simpson said. “The signs are really good because we had several big numbers we had to count" a 10, a nine, and three or four triples during the course of the tournament. So that shows we have some firepower in our lineup and I'm real pleased with that.”

“Kenny's performance was solid, he got off to shaky start but came back strong,” Simpson said. “Kane wasn't on his game, but he still shot even-par for the tournament and you'll take that when you're not playing anywhere near your best. And Edward was most impressive, because he had a couple of big numbers but hung in there. He's got a lot of heart and guts but most of all, patience. I mean, he opens the meet with a 10 and then plays the rest of the round 1-under, and he started today out with a 9 pretty quick (on his second hole), and fought back to shoot a 73. So he had to fight back two days in a row and never gave up or lost focus, and face it, scoring both a 10 and 9 in the same tournament is an aberration.”

Arizona's Chris Nallen set a school and tournament record in winning with an 18-under par 195 total, good for a five-stroke win over Pepperdine's Michael Putnam. Nallen carded a 68 Tuesday after rounds of 63 and 64 all but sealed a victory for him.

CU's 6-under 278 score in the second round tied for the second best in school history on a par-71 course, and easily bettered its previous best round in 20 years of competing in this meet, a 1-over 285 in the 2000 event.

The Buffs return to action in a little over two weeks, when it will take part in the John A. Burns Intercollegiate in Honolulu, Hawai'i; it will be the 400th event that Simpson will preside over in his 28 years as head coach of the Buffaloes.

Buffalo Individuals

T18. Kenny Coakley........ 75-68-69?212

T24. Kane Webber.......... 69-71-73?213

T35. Edward McGlasson..... 76-67-73?216

T51. Jeff Hanson.......... 73-72-76?221

75. Derek O'Neill........ 73-75-83?231

Team Scores

1. Arizona............ 267-271-286?824

2. New Mexico......... 275-269-290?834

3. Arizona State...... 278-269-296?843

4. Southern Cal....... 280-274-294?848

5. Wake Forest........ 283-276-293?852