CU Golfers Finish Ninth At UNM Tucker Invitational

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of Colorado men's golf team had its best round out of three this weekend, but was only able to improve a couple of spots in eventually finishing in ninth place here Saturday in the 57th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational.

No. 11 UNLV led from wire-to-wire in winning with a team score of 867 (3-over par ); that was good for a four-stroke win over host and No. 15 New Mexico, which had entered the day just one shot back of the Rebels. No. 14 San Diego State took third with 883 while Arizona and North Texas tied for fourth at 885.

Colorado, ranked No. 10 (GolfStat), No. 14 (Golfweek) and No. 24 (GCAA/Nike) shot the sixth-best team score in the final round (10-over 298) to finish with 902 total, moving up two spots after entering the day in 11th place.

The Buffs are one of just three schools, the others being UNM and New Mexico State, that have played in all 57 Tucker invitationals. Colorado has never won here, with its best showing runner-up efforts in 1956 and 1981. After opening the 2011-12 season with a pair of wins, the Buffs were hoping to breakthrough but it just wasn't in the cards.

“It was a much better day for the Buffaloes,” head coach Roy Edwards said. “The golf course played more difficult and, for the most part, the guys did a strong job overall. We are disappointed with our finish, but the guys did a good job of managing their games. It didn't seem like we played particularly well but did a good job of posting a decent score and moving up a couple of spots.”

The stats back up Edwards about the Buffs managing their games Saturday. The average score in the field was just below a 77 (76.8), and with birdies and pars tougher to come by than the first two rounds, CU's six participants here scored a respectable 15 birdies with 62 pars against 27 bogeys, three doubles and one triple.

“We have to continue to improve at managing our games, especially when we aren't playing our best,” Edwards added. “With better course management and patience we would have easily finished in the top five, but yesterday we were just a bit sloppy.

Senior Kevin Kring shot CU's best round Saturday, closing with an even-par 72 on the 7,562-yard UNM Championship Golf Course layout for a 7-over 223 total, tying him for 24th overall. He wrapped the tourney with four birdies, 10 pars and four bogeys; his nine birdies were a team-best here and tied for the 14th-most in the 96-man field. He played the par-5s at 5-under for the meet (tied for ninth) and the par-4s at 4-over (14th).

Senior Sebastian Heisele also tied for 24th, finishing up with a 4-over 76 for his 223 score; he scored a double bogey on his first hole of the day (No. 9) and was 4-over after four, but played even the rest of the way in. He handled UNM's tough par-3 holes better than almost everyone, as he and Lobo Ben Bauch played the 12 at 1-under for the tournament, the only two do so under par.

Junior Beau Schoolcraft shot 76 to finish up at 11-over 227, tying for 41st. He had two birdies and 10 pars with six bogeys to close his effort here. He was the lone Buff to finish his round with a birdie.

Freshman David Oraee played as an individual here, and he also tied for 41st after closing with a 3-over 75. He led the Buffs in pars with 37, which also were the sixth most overall; he had 13 on Saturday.

Junior Jason Burstyn closed with a 2-over 74, tying for 74th with a 235 scorecard (19-over). He was fairly steady Saturday with three birdies, 10 pars and five bogeys. He made a quadruple bogey on his first hole of the tournament and stood 7-over after just four holes, but regrouped and played the last 50 at 12-over.

Junior Derek Fribbs fired an 80 for a 238 total (22-over), struggling for the second straight round; while he did score three birdies, he had just eight pars to counter four bogeys, two doubles and a triple. He was 1-under par after his first nine holes (Nos. 11-to 1), but a triple bogey on No. 2 started a run that undid what had started out to be a solid final round.

BYU's Zac Blair claimed medalist honors, firing a final round 70 for a 209 (7-under) score, which bested UNM's James Erkenbeck by four shots.

The Buffaloes have a couple of weeks off before completing the fall portion of their schedule in the Alister Mackenzie Invitational in Fairfax, Calif., on October 17-18.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
	T24.	Sebastian Heisele	73-74-76—223
	T24.	Kevin Kring	76-75-72—223
	T41.	Beau Schoolcraft	76-75-76—227
	T41.	*David Oraee	76-76-75—227
	T74.	Jason Burstyn	82-79-74—235
	T82.	Derek Fribbs	76-82-80—238
(*—played as an individual)

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
	1	Zac Blair, BYU	69-70-70—209
	2	James Erkenbeck, New Mexico	71-69-73—213
	T3.	Derek Ernst, UNLV	69-73-73—215
	T3.	Carlos Ortiz, North Texas	73-70-72—215
	5	Kevin Penner, UNLV	76-73-67—216

TEAM SCORES
	1	UNLV	292-288-287—867
	2	New Mexico	299-282-290—871
	3	San Diego State	295-292-296—883
	4	Arizona	295-291-299—885
	4	North Texas	296-292-297—885
	6	BYU	294-294-302—890
	7	New Mexico State	301-295-295—891
	8	Arizona State	297-298-302—897
	9	COLORADO	301-303-298—902
	10	Utah	304-301-302—907
	11	Air Force	304-298-306—908
	12	Texas-San Antonio	305-293-313—911
	13	Wyoming	311-298-305—914
	14	Texas-El Paso	305-307-308—920
	15	Northern Colorado	308-312-305—925
	16	Louisiana-Monroe	317-312-321—950

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Players Mentioned

Jason Burstyn

Derek Fribbs

Sebastian Heisele

Kevin Kring

David Oraee

Beau Schoolcraft

Colorado University Athletics