McGlasson Shoots School Record 63, Buffs Finish 11th

Sunday, January 30

Tucson, Ariz.

TBA

Colorado

All Rounds

Photo by: GolfStat

February 01, 2005 | Men's Golf

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

TUCSON, Ariz. ? The University of Colorado men's golf team finished 11th in the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate here Tuesday, the Buffaloes' first competition for the spring season.

No. 4 New Mexico, with a team score of 13-under par in the final round, overtook second round leader BYU to claim the team title with an 840 score. BYU settled for runner-up honors with an 842 total, with Tulsa third at 851 and host Arizona fourth with 852.

Colorado finished 11th with an 886 count, and while the Buffs rebounded from a poor start and closed strong, the story here for Colorado was junior Edward McGlasson. He recorded a school record 63 in the second round, breaking by one stroke the 15-year old record set by John Nyuli in the 1989 Wyoming-Red Jacoby Invitational. The round, which was also complicated by being played over two days, was 8-under par on the 6,793-yard, par 71 Arizona National Golf Club course, topping the old school best of 7-under par which had been accomplished on three occasions, first by Hale Irwin (in the 1967 NCAA Championships), and then by Steve Jones and John Lindberg.

McGlasson played 14 holes of the round on Monday, and stood at 6-under par when play was suspended due to darkness. Of the four holes he had remaining (8 through 11), three are generally considered the toughest on the course. But McGlasson opened with two pars, and then birdied the toughest, 10 and 11, both playing to about a stroke over par on average for the meet. He also now owns the second and third best stroke improvements between rounds in CU history, as the 16 for this meet ranks third; he shot a second round 70 after opening with an 87 for a 17-stroke jump at the 2002 Prestige At PGA West, while Nyuli owns the top mark, improving 18 strokes (second round 90 to a final round 72) at the 1990 Miami-Doral Invitational. (Ironically, the PGA Tour mark of 21 is held by a former Buff, Jonathan Kaye.)

McGlasson, who tied the tournament record with his effort, had no idea he was in range to set a school record. “My mindset was the same as it was (Monday), just taking one shot at a time, getting it on the fairway and then on the right part of the green so I could score,” he said. “I did that, just missed a birdie and then made one. Then on the par-5 (No. 11), I hit a solid drive, and I was 260 from the pin and I decided I wanted to go for the 62. I hit a perfect 3-wood just over the pin. I was really excited, and I don't think I've been that nervous over a putt for a long time, and I had the shakes. I left it two feet short, so I'll hear about that for a while.

“For me, out of the gate I got things going the wrong direction, made two huge numbers back-to-back (double and triple bogey midway through his round), and that threw me from the ditch into the dungeon,” McGlasson said of his first round 79. “I battled through it, but in the back of my mind, my goal was to get back to even par. I never thought I'd shoot a 63, but I kept making birdies and I got eight of them to go in. When I get to that second round, I just won't accept anything but birdie, I just get that grit and grind going where I know I have to get a number instead of just going out and playing well. That, and I have my own goals of what I want to accomplish.”

“Our focus was that we wanted to finish the second round strong, and for the most part, we did that,” CU head coach Mark Simpson said. The Buffs were 3-under as a team with four holes to play heading into the day.

“In Ed's case, he just missed birdie on his first hole, and on his last, he had a 15-footer for eagle, and I could tell he was nervous,” Simpson continued. “I lost track of him for a couple of holes, so I assumed he had that putt for a 65; when he told me it was for a 62, I was obviously pleased. Also in that instance, after you shoot your career best, it's easy to lose focus, but he went out in the third round and parred his first four holes.”

Irwin, the last player at CU solely to simultaneously own both the low gross record and the under par mark (from 1967 until 1980), telephoned McGlasson Tuesday afternoon to congratulate him on establishing the records. "That was really special of him to call me and it's something I'll always appreciate and remember," McGlasson said. "He had to be busy just becoming the first player to ever win the same tournament five years in a row, and for him to take the time out to call was incredible."

McGlasson's round also was the catalyst for CU to shoot a 283 for the second round, enabling the Buffaloes to post the second best stroke improvement from one round to the next in school history. CU opened with a 28-over par 312, but shaved some 29 strokes off that tally to put up a 1-under par effort as a team in the second round. But despite the 283 score being the sixth best posted for the round, CU was able to move up only one notch in the standings (from a tie for 13th to 12th).

For the tournament, McGlasson finished tied for 25th, with another junior, Derek O'Neill right behind him, as he turned in a very steady 72-73-72?217 scorecard to tie for 29th. It was O'Neill's first action of the season, as he missed all of the fall season with tendonitis in his right elbow. He had it at 3-under par at one point Tuesday, but closed with four straight bogeys (holes 7 through 10) to finish on a bit of a down note but encouraging nonetheless for his first competition in over five months.

Junior Kenny Coakley recorded Colorado's best score in the final round with an even par 71; he opened with a double bogey on No. 10 and was 3-over at one point, but rallied with four birdies against just one bogey to get it back to par.

Arizona State's Alejandro Canizares led from wire-to-wire in winning with an 11-under par score of 202, though New Mexico's Spencer Levin almost caught him with a final round 66 to finish one shot off the pace.

The Buffs were mired down the standings thanks to the bad first round; but the last two rounds, CU's 574 total was the seventh best in the field, at the tail-end of several teams within 10 strokes of each other, a sign especially encouraging to Simpson.

“To me, that gives us a much better indication of what kind of team we are,” Simpson said. Obviously, in a 54-hole tournament, you count them all, but I think the last 36 tells us a lot, not to mention coming back from that kind of beginning. When you get started on a note like we did, hitting it sideways out into the desert, it can eat away your confidence and really take a toll, especially since it's continuous play for 36 holes. So to come back from that, it's a very good sign for this team that we were able to collect ourselves, get things restarted and then play the way we did.”

The Buffs resume action next week in the Taylor Made/Waikoloa Intercollegiate in Waikoloa, Hawai'i, set for next Thursday through Saturday (February 10-12).