Colorado University Athletics
Golfers Eighth After Round One In Paradise
February 04, 2009 | Men's Golf
KOHALA COAST, Hawai'i -- The University of Colorado men's golf opened the spring portion of its season here Wednesday, and put a decent round in the books after a three-month layoff in landing in eighth place after the first round of the Hawai'i-Hilo Invitational.
No. 11 Washington raced to the first round lead with an impressive 7-under par team score of 281. That was good for a four stroke lead over No. 2 USC (3-under 285), with Oregon (1-under 287) the only other school to shoot under par. No. 16 Texas Tech and No. 20 TCU round out the top five, tied with 3-over 291 scores. Colorado, ranked No. 48 by Golfweek, is in eighth with a 295 score (7-over).
The field is easily one of the strongest to date this season, with seven top 20 and 10 top 50 teams in the Golfweek rankings as of January 27. CU is holding its own after 18 holes, ahead of three schools the Buffs are ranked behind, Georgia Tech (No. 10), Florida State (No. 31) and Cal-Davis (No. 32).
Colorado is being paced by freshman Johnny Widmer, who was one of just 16 players in the 100-man field to shoot under par on the scenic yet challenging 6,913-yard, par-72 North Course at the Mauna Lani Resort. Playing in just his second collegiate tournament, he zipped around the course and put a 2-under par 70 into the books. He had an eagle and finished up his round with three straight birdies and is tied for fifth overall.
Senior Patrick Grady is tied for 24th after opening with a 1-over 73; he got off to a fairly rough start but brought it back to normal fairly quickly. Two juniors accounted for CU's other scoring rounds Wednesday, with Luke Symons recording a 3-over 75 while Justin Bardgett logged a 5-over 77.
Senior Derek Tolan, CU's stroke leader in the fall with a school record 71.0 average for 18 rounds, struggled early with a double bogey on his second hole en route to a 78, his high round of the year. It snapped a streak of 22 consecutive rounds by Tolan that counted toward CU's team score.
Freshman Kevin Kring is also participating here, but as an individual as his score will not count toward CU's total; he opened with an 80.
"I am really proud of Johnny and Pat, they did a good job overall," head coach Roy Edwards said. "We got off to really rough start as a whole, but came back to do a very good job managing the round to post a decent score. We had a lot of bogeys and a couple of double bogeys out of the gate, Pat even hit a couple into the lava. But Johnny got things going with an eagle on his ninth hole, which was Hole No. 7 on the course, and birdied his last three.
"We tried to do a good job of getting the momentum going our way to get the competitive rust off, something everyone here had to deal with since no one has played yet," he added. "We started on some pretty easy holes comparatively speaking and just didn't do that well on them. But we responded in mid-round and closed strong, so I am excited to see how we come out and play tomorrow."
The second round of the tournament is set for Thursday with the third and final round on Friday, both scheduled for 7:30 a.m. (MST) shotgun starts.
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
T5. Johnny Widmer................................ 34-36--70
T24. Patrick Grady.................................. 36-37--73
T42. Luke Symons.................................. 39-36--75
T57. Justin Bardgett................................ 38-39--77
T63. Derek Tolan.................................... 38-40--78
T76. *Kevin Kring.................................. 39-41--80
(*--playing as an individual; scores do not count toward CU team total)
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
1. Rodolfo Estrada, Hawaii-Hilo............. 31-35--66
2. Richard Lee, Washington................. 34-34--68
3. Nick Taylor, Washington.................. 35-34--69
3. Jamie Lovemark, USC...................... 33-36--69
5. Nine tied........................................ 70
TEAM SCORES
1. Washington................................. 281
2. Southern California....................... 285
3. Oregon....................................... 287
4. Texas Tech................................. 291
4. TCU........................................... 291
6. Stanford..................................... 294
6. Oklahoma................................... 294
8. COLORADO............................... 295
9. Arizona State.............................. 296
10. Cal-Davis.................................. 299
11. Hawaii...................................... 300
12. Georgia Tech............................. 301
13. Fresno State............................. 308
14. Kansas..................................... 309
15. Florida State.............................. 311
16. San Francisco............................ 312
17. Hawaii.......................................314
