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Golfers Take Third In Own CU-SRI
April 08, 2008 | Men's Golf
STEVINSON, Calif. ? The University of Colorado men's golf team couldn't make a move upward in the standings here Tuesday and settled for a third place finish in its own 10th Annual CU-Stevinson Ranch Invitational.
New Mexico State posted the best team score in the final round, coming from two strokes out of the lead after 36 holes to post an eight-stroke victory. It was NMSU's first win of the year, and its first since the Aggies won their own Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate in October 2006.
NMSU finished with a team score of 872 (8-over par) after registering a 1-over 289 on Tuesday. That bested No. 43 and second round leader St. Mary's (
The Buffs closed with a 297 in the final round (plus-9), as CU didn't get off to a good start and battled to hang in there.
Sophomore Luke Symons closed with a second straight 2-under 70 for a 220 (4-over) total, tying him for 10th place. It was his third top 10 finish this season, tying junior Derek Tolan for the team lead. His round included a run where he scored three birdies in a four-hole span on the heels of a double bogey.
“I got more into my comfort zone, I didn't let the bogeys or the doubles affect me, and I would come back with a birdie,” Symons said of his two 70s after an opening round 80. “My putting was really good the second and third rounds, I started to get the feel of the greens down.” Symons had just 26 putts in the final round, seven less than his first time around Stevinson Ranch's 7,144-yard, par-72 layout.
“I kind of thought I was on that track after round one,” Symons said in reflecting back on a 79-81-79 scorecard he posted as a freshman here in 2007. “After finishing four over my last three, I just viewed it (the second round) as a fresh beginning. I had nothing to lose, so I just went out there and fired away. Once I got more relaxed on the greens and starting making some putts, it was all good from there.”
Tolan finished 13th with a 221 total after a closing round 75. He doubled No. 1 to start off Tuesday and was 3-over after five holes, though he played even the rest of the way. He scored 35 pars in the 54 holes here, tied for the fifth most.
Senior Michael Baird shot a second consecutive 2-over 74 to finish at 224 (8-over), tying him for 16th; that enabled CU to be one of four teams in the meet to have three finishers in the top 20, joining New Mexico State, Washington State and Pacific. Baird bogeyed his first two holes (Nos. 2 and 3 in the shotgun format) and had it back to even before scoring a double bogey on No.18, which played the second toughest this week.
Freshman Michael Imperato tied for 26th, as a final round 79 sent him down 13 spots in the final standings. He had a couple of bogeys on his front nine, but played the back five over.
Seniors Jim Grady shot a 78 to finish 2ith a 228 score, tying him for 34th; he was 3-over on each side, but was undone early by a couple of double bogeys and scrambled the rest of the way.
Two Buffaloes played as individuals here, with redshirt frosh Riley Andrews carding a final round 78 for a 234 total to tie for 58th, while sophomore Justin Bardgett finished with a 79 for a 236 score, tying him for 63rd in the 74-man field. Their scores did not count toward CU's team total.
Stevinson has never been easy for this tournament, presenting of the toughest yet fairest challenges annually in college golf. Of the 784 players in the 10 meets overall, only 43 have bettered par with another 11 matching it in the final standings. That trend continued here, with just four under par and the average score posted a 76.1 over the three rounds.
“I was really happy with Luke's last two rounds, but overall, it was disappointing finishing third,” head coach Roy Edwards said. “We've got to get better effort and play out of our seniors. We'll be excited to get right back and play again this weekend. Whenever you play well, you're excited to play again to keep it going, and when you don't play your best, you want to get right back out there to compete again and redeem yourself.
“We really got off to bad start in the first round, and we played okay the rest of the way but never really got things going. I think we put ourselves in a situation where when things weren't going our way, we lost our composure a bit. And when things are going our way, we need to seize the moment and shoot lower.”
Oklahoma City's Anthony Michael matched the second best score in tournament history, a 6-under 66, to go from an eighth-place tie and five strokes back after two rounds to medalist honors and a three-stroke victory. He scored 33 on each nine in finishing 54 holes with a 4-under par 212 score, three better than a trio of performers, St. Mary's' Chadd Cocco and Michael McRae and New Mexico State's Timothy Madigan.
The Buffaloes return to
Tournament Notes
R Weather. The wind was negligible Tuesday, as conditions were ripe for scoring, but the final round difficulty of the pin placements made it challenging for most of the field. Where 13 teams improved their team scores from round one to round two, just four did so from round two to round three.
R
T10. Luke Symons............................... 80-70-70?220
13. Derek Tolan................................. 73-73-75?221
T16.
T26. Michael Imperato........................ 76-71-79?226
T34. Jim Grady.................................... 78-72-78?228
T58. *Riley Andrews........................... 79-77-78?234
T63. *Justin Bardgett........................... 76-81-79?236
(*?playing as an individual; scores do not count toward CU total.)
TEAM SCORES
1.
2. St. Mary's (
3.
4.
5.
5. Loyola-Marymount................... 305-289-298?892
7.
8. Pacific...................................... 305-295-301?901
9. CSU-Bakersfield...................... 305-298-299?902
10.
11. Gonzaga................................... 320-294-298?912
12. Drake....................................... 315-303-296?914
13. Northern
14.
1 Anthony Michael
2 Timothy Madigan
5 Jason D'Amore Loyola-Marymount 73-71-73--217
Stephen Clark UMKC 75-73-69--217
7 Brian Locke Loyola-Marymount 76-68-74--218
Matt Edwards
9 Josh Stewart
10
Luke Symons
13 Derek Tolan
14 T.J. Bordeaux Pacific 73-72-78--223
M. Schnegelberger UMKC 75-75-73--223
16 Michael Baird
Luke Joy Drake 74-76-74--224
Chris Rosenau Pacific 78-72-74--224
Alex Johnson Pacific 76-74-74--224
Reyn Tanaka
22 Zach Jecklin
Kenny Adams San Francisco 75-77-73--225
Kevin Lozares
James Moseley CSU-Bakersfield 73-73-79--225
26 Josh Taylor UMKC 77-70-79--226
Alex Hogben UMKC 77-72-77--226
Michael Imperato
30 Kurt Nino San Francisco 73-80-74--227
Nick Shimon Drake 83-73-71--227
Bryan Hogan CSU-Bakersfield 76-76-75--227
34 Julian Valenciana
Mike Flynn CSU-Bakersfield 78-75-75--228
Nick Baratelle CSU-Bakersfield 80-74-74--228
Greg Moss Loyola-Marymount 79-74-75--228
Jim Grady
39 Colin Clemente
