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Golfers Finish 11th At Big 12 Championships
April 24, 2007 | Men's Golf
HUTCHINSON, Kan. ? The University of Colorado men's golf team started the day in 11th place and had hoped to move up as many as five spots to crack a first division finish, but when all the dust settled, the Buffaloes hung on to that very spot in finishing 11th in the 11th Annual Big 12 Conference Championships that came to a close here Tuesday.
Sixth-ranked Oklahoma State held on to its first day lead in winning its fifth Big 12 title, but “only” the Cowboys second in the last seven years. OSU shot the day's best round (a 7-over 287) to close with an 866 total, good for a seven-shot win over No. 12 Texas A&M; the ?Pokes led by five through 36 holes. No. 40 Texas Tech caught and passed No. 27 Texas on the last two holes to take over third in the standings.
Blustery winds up to 25 miles per hour blew all during the round, as with overcast skies and thunderstorms in the forecast, the
“It was a very difficult tournament for us overall, that's about all I can say to sum it up,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “It was unfortunate we couldn't play better, but it was a great experience for us.
“We can learn mentally from this, as we did come in with high aspirations and they didn't materialize for us,” he said. “Then we readjusted our goal for the final round and still were aiming for a top six finish. I thought we were making a little progress early on, but we had a couple of big numbers that stopped our mini-run.”
Junior Michael Baird likely didn't know it at the time, but his eagle on the 512-yard, par-5 seventh hole was the difference for the Buffaloes escaping the league cellar.
Baird's final round 70, which was even for the day on the 6,611-yard, par-70 Prairie Dunes Country Club course, enabled him to finish eighth individually with a 10-over 220 score. That matched the fourth best finish by a CU golfer in the Big 12 meet, bested only by fourth place finishes by Matt Call (1999) and Edward McGlasson (last year) and by a seventh place effort by Kane Webber in 2001. Ben Portie tied for eighth in 1998.
“I seemed in pretty much every tournament to start off bad the first nine holes, and that was the case here,” Baird said. “I wasn't hitting it well, I wasn't putting it well. I started feeling better on my third nine after I reminded myself that I had been playing well coming in here so I'd better get things rolling. It was playing really tough, but I was grinding it out, playing level-headed and did have it 2-under at one point until I bogeyed three in a row. But this was the kind of course where if you can shoot par, you're going to be really happy with it, and I am.”
On his eagle, one of nine in the entire tournament, Baird joked that, “the hole really owed me one. It's a downwind par 5, and the first two times here I hit the driver right into the bunker and saved par once and doubled the other time. I sort of exorcised the demons a bit and hit it about 350 down the middle today, had an easy wedge in and the putt was from about four-feet. I sunk it, thanks to an able assist from a good read by Coach Edwards.”
Baird's rally earned him a spot on the Big 12 All-Tournament Team, just the sixth Buff to earn the honor.
Prairie Dunes was its usual challenge, with the stroke average for the 180 rounds recorded in the tournament topping six strokes over par at 76.43 with just six subpar rounds. Baird's effort was bested by only four players and matched by no one else, meaning 55 players were over par, with the medalist, Oklahoma State's Pablo Martin, one-over for the meet as he rode a final round 68 to finish with a 211 score. He was tied for third entering the day, and wound up besting teammate Ryan Posey by three shots. Posey also recorded a 68.
Unfortunately for
Sophomore Derek Tolan and junior Tom Gempel never got untracked here, though both did close with their best round of the championships, each recording an 8-over-78. Tolan tied for 53rd overall (238), while Gempel was 60th (254).
CU is idle for two weeks before resuming competition in the Perry Maxwell Intercollegiate, set for May 12-13 in Ardmore, Okla. By then, the Buffs will know their postseason fate, as the regional selections for the NCAA Championships will be announced on May 7.
“We're now in a wait-and-see mode,” Edwards said of CU's status. “It's out of our control, and I've told the guys we can't really worry about it, we've done what we can and the decision is in somebody else's hands. We're likely a bubble team, but when we're compared to everyone in our district from the start to the end of the year, I feel we're clearly one of the teams that should make it into the NCAA's. I base that on our schedule, our results and how we've done against the teams around us all year.”
8. Michael Baird.............................. 77-73-70?220
T40. Blake Moore................................ 80-73-79?232
T48. Patrick Grady.............................. 76-78-82?236
T53. Derek Tolan................................. 80-80-78?238
60. Tom Gempel............................... 88-88-78?254
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TEAM SCORES
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8. Baylor.................................... 302-303-308?913
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Players Mentioned
