Colorado
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Golfers Finish Fall With 15th Place At Cal's Mackenzie
October 19, 2010 | Men's Golf
FAIRFAX, Calif. ? The University of Colorado men's golf team wrapped up its fall season here Tuesday, playing its best round of three over two days here but still finishing 15th in California's 8th Annual Alister Mackenzie Invitational, which was completed here Tuesday.
There was no change at the top of the team leaderboard, as host and No. 10 California held off a charge from No. 15 San Diego State. The Golden Bears entered the day with a healthy 10-shot lead, but the Aztecs made things interesting and in the end, Cal posted an 804 team score (48-under par) to win by two shots. SDSU scored the best team round of the day (a 16-under 268), to finish up with an 806 tally. No. 43 Oregon State claimed the bronze position with an 825 total.
Colorado remained in 15th place ? where it started the day ? and closed out the meet and the fall with a 2-over 286 score for the final round and an 860 total (8-over) for the tournament. Though unable to make up any ground, the 6,708-yard, par-71 Meadow Club golf course layout was set “Sunday tough” and the Buffs collectively scored 16 birdies and had just two double bogeys as the worst single holes of the round.
Junior Kevin Kring paved the way for the Buffaloes, tiring a final round 70 for 3-under 210 total, good for a 29th place tie. Chalk up another consistent round for Kring, as he logged three birdies (11 total over three rounds), 13 pars and two bogeys. He ended the fall as the national leader, out of nearly 6,600 players, with the fewest holes of triple bogey or worse with zero (out of 216 holes); in fact, he recorded just four where he shot a double bogey.
Sophomore Derek Fribbs got things rolling Tuesday, carding a 3-under 68 to finish up with a 5-over 212. CU's fall stroke leader coming in (73.9), he had 11 holes of bogey or worse Monday but came back strong with five birdies and just two bogeys with the rest pars. He bogeyed his fifth hole of the day (No. 14), but bounced right back with three consecutive birdies to get it under par, where he stayed the remainder of the round.
Kring wrestled the top spot away from Fribbs to end the fall, lowering his average a full stroke to 73.0, though Fribbs also lowered his to 73.3.
“Derek closed with a solid round today after playing kind of poorly yesterday, and Kevin battled through a few tough stretches to shoot a decent round,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “The course was definitely harder today with tougher hole locations, so relatively, almost all of the scores across the board were higher so this was our best round in relation to team scoring. All-in-all, it did end up being a better round for us even though we didn't change positions.
“Overall, the fall was a big disappointment,” Edwards continued. “We've got a lot of work to do in the spring, if we want to be competitive. We have the whole winter to think about it and get better.”
CU is the host school for next May's NCAA Central Regional, but after posting a 22-35 record in the fall against Division I competition, the Buffaloes are right now on the outside looking in as far as qualifying for a berth.
“At best, it's precarious at this point,” Edwards said. “We know we'll have to play very well this spring to have a chance of qualifying to play in our regional. But were capable of doing that; this is a team with a lot of talent and we just have to put it together. Hopefully that will give us added motivation to work that much harder this winter, because I believe that will determine how we will come back and play in the spring.”
Fellow junior Sebastian Heisele tied for 57th with a final round 75 for a 3-over 217 effort; he had 12 pars and five bogeys but could only muster one birdie.
Senior Luke Symons shot a third straight 73 to finish at 6-over 219, tying him for 64th. He had five birdies to give him a team-best 12 here, but also had five bogeys and a double, which he scored on his first hole (No. 10), playing even the remainder of the way including a stretch where he birdied three in a row (Nos. 1, 2, 3).
Redshirt frosh Brennan Dolan rounded out the CU quintet with an 8-over 79, ending with a 225 total (12-over) and tying for 75th place. Even after six holes in which he recorded two birdies, he struggled the rest of the way, with six bogeys and a double in his final 12 holes.
Arguably the toughest field CU competed in this fall (six top 43 teams plus four others in the top 50 last year), this was the fifth and final team tournament of the fall for the Buffaloes, who also had one dual match for six total competitions.
The Buffs will resume their season the first week in February in the Mauna Lani Invitational on the Big Island in Hawai'i.
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
T29. Kevin Kring................................... 67-73-70?210
T50. Derek Fribbs................................ 74-73-68?215
T57. Sebastian Heisele....................... 69-73-75?217
T64. Luke Symons.............................. 73-73-73?219
T75. Brennan Dolan............................. 74-72-79?225
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
T2. Ben An, California....................... 65-64-69?198
T2. Todd Baek, San Diego State....... 67-65-66?198
4. Stephen Hale, California............. 67-66-66?199
5. Colin Featherstone, S.D. State... 67-67-66?200
TEAM SCORES
1. California................................. 262-266-276?804
2. San Diego State...................... 267-271-268?806
3. Oregon State........................... 273-277-275?825
4. UC-Davis................................. 276-276-277?829
5. UC-Irvine................................. 277-278-277?832
6. Colorado State........................ 277-279-285?841
7. Oregon..................................... 275-283-284?842
8. San Jose State........................ 276-284-283?843
8. Fresno State............................ 276-290-277?843
10. Minnesota............................... 282-279-284?845
11. San Francisco......................... 277-288-280?845
12. Penn State............................... 280-282-285?847
13. New Mexico............................ 285-287-283?855
14. Wisconsin............................... 281-287-290?858
15. COLORADO............................. 283-291-286?860
16. Hawai'i..................................... 292-287-284?863
Players Mentioned
