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Golfers Rally To Finish 11th At Big 12 Championships
May 01, 2005 | Men's Golf
TRINITY, Texas ? The University of Colorado men's golf team, playing mostly for pride and to avoid a last place finish in a conference championship in 56 years, rallied here Sunday by posting the fifth best team score of the day in finishing 11th in the 9th Annual Big 12 Conference Championships.
No. 1 Oklahoma State ended a three-year reign by Texas in winning its first league title since 2000, its fourth Big 12 crown and NCAA-record 49th conference championship in history. The Cowboys led wire-to-wire in posting a four-over par 868 team score, defeating Oklahoma (877) by 13 strokes. Missouri, which has played well since mid-March, claimed third (885); OSU, OU and MU finished each round in the standings as the 1-2-3, a Big 12 tournament first. The defending champion Longhorns moved from 10th all the way into fourth, tying OSU for the best round of the day (1-under 287) in finishing with a 903 total.
CU entered the final round in 12th place, some 10 strokes out of 11th and had not been playing anywhere close to its expectations. The Buffs were faced with the possibility of finishing last in a league championship, which CU had done just once in recorded history ? a seventh place showing in the 1949 Big Seven title meet.
But the Buffaloes, with a history of final round rallies under head coach Mark Simpson, both in conference as well as regional play, were up to the task to avoid that. CU recorded a 299 in the third and final round, the fifth best team score of the day and one of only 13 under 300 in 36 team rounds posted overall. Still, the 11th place finish matched the school's worst in the meet (1997), and marked only the third time the Buffs did not post a first-division finish.
“The pressure was off more than anything else, but pride played a factor as well,” Simpson said. “You learn to say never say never in this game, and there's always hope. And there was the chance of passing Nebraska, Iowa State and Kansas State, which would have helped us a lot in regard to the NCAA Championships. So we entered the round with hope, and though it's small consolation, we did not finish in the cellar and posted one of the better scores for the day. But realistically, it came a little too late, and we know that.”
One streak that did come to an end was at least one Colorado golfer posting a top 20 finish in the conference championships every year since 1975. Junior Edward McGlasson, likely unaware of such a streak, bogeyed his last hole to shoot a 75 Sunday for a 228 total for 54 holes, tying him for 22nd overall. He had it going at the start, as he was 3-under after scoring birdies on Nos. 11, 14 and 17 (CU started on the back nine), but a triple bogey on No. 18 brought him back to even.
The last time a Buff had failed to finish in the top 20 or higher in a league meet was in 1974, when Blake Stirling tied for 23rd in the Big Eight Conference Championships.
Including McGlasson, Colorado players had three of the 27 rounds posted Sunday of 75 or better, the three best rounds here by the Buffaloes. Junior captain Blake Moore bounced back from an 82, which included a questionable ruling that cost him at least three strokes, to shoot a CU best 1-over 73. He had a steady round that included three birdies and nothing worse than bogey. Junior Derek O'Neill recorded a 2-over 74, a far cry from his opening rounds of 85 and 83; his 13 pars Sunday were the most a Buff in a single round here. Moore tied for 34th and O'Neill 55th, overall, respectively.
In-between, junior Kenny Coakley had a 77 Sunday for a 238 total to tie for 49th, while freshman Shea Sena, one of just 10 freshmen who competed here, struggled to an 83 to close with a 240 score, tying for 53rd. Coakley was 2-under with six holes to play, but closed with three bogeys, while Sena never got untracked in the final round, as while he did score two birdies, he had just five pars to counter nine bogeys and two doubles.
Oklahoma's Anthony Kim ran away from the field Sunday, as he had one of the day's three rounds in the 60s, closing with a final round 68 for a 208 total and six stroke win over Oklahoma State's Alex Noren.
Prior to this meet, the Buffaloes were ranked seventh and eighth in the two district rankings for the Central Region; the top seven receive automatic berths. An 11th place finish here did not help and most likely hurt Colorado's chances for an NCAA regional appearance.
The Buffs own a 9-24-2 record against district teams this season (6-19-1 in the spring), and of the teams ranked ahead of them, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Kansas State and Missouri, CU trails all in head-to-head match-ups this season with exception of the likely second seed Wichita State, whom the Buffaloes have tied in both matches this season. CU and Kansas State figure to be dueling for the seventh spot, but KSU owns a 3-0 edge on CU this year, though only by a grand total of 10 strokes.
“Our chances for the NCAA's are slim; I'm sure we won't get picked out of our district, so we'd have to be an at-large team,” Simpson said. “It's going to depend on the number of automatic qualifiers, so if there are no or few surprises in conference championships, there will be more spots open to at-large selections.”
Colorado does have one more regular season meet remaining, the Perry Maxwell Intercollegiate in Ardmore, Okla., slated for May 14-15.
Buffalo Individuals
T22. Edward McGlasson...... 76-77-75?228 (+12)
T34. Blake Moore........... 77-82-73?232 (+16)
T49. Kenny Coakley......... 80-81-77?238 (+22)
T53. Shea Sena............. 78-79-83?240 (+24)
T55. Derek O'Neill......... 85-83-74?242 (+26)
Team Scores
1. Oklahoma State...... 285-296-287?868 (+ 4)
2. Oklahoma............ 290-298-289?877 (+13)
3. Missouri............ 295-297-293?885 (+21)
4. Texas............... 311-305-287?903 (+39)
5. Texas A & M......... 303-299-307?909 (+45)
6. Kansas.............. 304-303-303?910 (+46)
7. Baylor.............. 303-308-301?912 (+48)
8. Texas Tech.......... 299-310-309?918 (+54)
9. Iowa State.......... 302-318-301?921 (+57)
10. Kansas State........ 308-306-311?925 (+61)
11. COLORADO............ 311-319-299?929 (+65)
12. Nebraska............ 303-312-316?931 (+67)
Players Mentioned
