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Golfers Hosting 11th Stevinson Ranch Invitational
April 05, 2009 | Men's Golf
STEVINSON, Calif. - The University of Colorado men's golf team is hosting its 11th Annual CU-Stevinson Ranch Invitational in this quaint central California town, and the Buffaloes are gunning to win their own meet for just the second time especially since it is the final tune-up for the Big 12 Conference Championships.
The meet is set for Monday and Tuesday (April 6-7) at Stevinson Ranch Golf Club, located in the heart of the central valley, about two hours from San Francisco, Sacramento and Fresno. Two rounds will be played Monday with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start, with the final round Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. Stevinson plays to a 7,142-yard, par-72 configuration for the CU meet.
Sixteen teams and nine individuals comprise an 89-man field; New Mexico State was the 2008 champion but the Aggies are not participating this year, though runner-up St. Mary's (Calif.) and third place CU return.
Other teams in the field include CSU-Bakersfield, CSU-Stanislaus, Liberty, Long Beach State, Loyola-Marymount, Missouri, Nevada, Northern Colorado, Portland, Sacramento State, San Francisco, South Dakota State, UMKC and Washington State. Colorado is the highest ranked team here, coming in at No. 45 in last week's Golfweek rating and No. 49 by GolfStat. Nevada (Nos. 75/78), Washington State (Nos. 80 and 77), Missouri (Nos. 91 and 90) and South Dakota State (No. 99, GW) are other teams ranked in the top 100 that are participating.
"We're looking to improve on the last couple of tournaments, play well and compete hard this week," head coach Roy Edwards said. "We snapped out of a small funk we had been in and played well at the Western Intercollegiate last week (where CU tied for second), but we all know we didn't play our best and can do better.
"This being is our final tune-up for the Big 12 Championships, we know we have to keep improving, keep working on all those little things that can make a difference. We have a goal of winning here and gaining so momentum if we can."
The Buffaloes will be led by their top two guns here, seniors Derek Tolan (No. 1 man) and Patrick Grady (No. 2, though No. 1-A is more realistic). The pair has three wins, eight top five, 10 top 10 and 16 top 20 finishes between them, with each posting eight rounds in the 60s this season, one off Kane Webber's record of nine set in 2003-04. Tolan has 34 such career rounds, three shy of Webber's overall mark. With 141 career rounds played, Tolan needs three to tie four others for third all-time at Colorado.
Edwards brought nine players on the trip, the entire active squad. Freshman Kevin Kring (playing No. 3), and juniors Luke Symons (No. 4) and Justin Bardgett (No. 5) round out the quintet that has been designated as CU's scorers this tourney.
Senior Tom Gempel, sophomore Michael Imperato, redshirt freshman Sebastian Heisele and frosh Johnny Widmer will play individually, their scores to count toward a Colorado "B" team total that won't be recognized in the official standings, but will give them a goal of trying to match or beat the scoring five.
The top individual in the field is Liberty freshman Robert Karlsson, ranked No. 14 by GolfStat (No. 35 by Golfweek); South Dakota State senior Trent Peterson (No. 38 by GolfStat), Missouri senior Peter Malnati (No. 53 GS/No. 63 GW), Tolan (Nos. 48 and 58) and Grady (Nos. 68 and 82) are other top 100 players competing.
Click on the notes package below for much, much more.
Note: Due to the rural location and a lack of volunteers to help run the meet, there will be no live scoring on GolfStat; however, CUBuffs.com will have round-by-round tournament updates.
