Colorado
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Golfers Finish 13th In Battle At The Beach
February 15, 2011 | Men's Golf
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. ? The University of Colorado men's golf team played a bit better Tuesday but couldn't escape last place, as the Buffaloes finished 13th in the second annual Battle at the Beach.
No. 2 UCLA rallied to win the meet it co-hosted, as the Bruins logged the best final round score in the field (351, or +1) to close with a 1,057 total team score, or 7-over par. That was good enough to topple No. 25 San Diego, the leader after each of the first two rounds, by three shots. No. 14 Augusta State matched UCLA's final round score and moved up three spots to grab third with a 1,065 total.
The Buffaloes shaved five strokes off their total from Monday, but still recorded a 30-over 380 to wrap the meet with a team score of 1,138, or 88-over par. It was CU's first last place finish (15th out of 15) since the 2005 Louisiana Classics.
The field featured nine top 50 teams (six top 27) and a format that called for five players scoring for the team instead of the usual four, one that benefits deeper teams. CU opened the spring in a tough field in Hawai'i, as the two spring meets CU participated in currently rank among the 10 toughest in college this season.
“This tournament is one of the best in the country, and you want to compete against the best,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “If you're not on your game, you're going to get beat. But we don't want to play against mediocre competition. I have a lot of confidence in the guys, and we have three weeks until our next event and the guys are fired up to prove that this was an anomaly.
“We made progress in every tournament this year until this one, and we took a step backwards. We were right there in Hawai'i to have a great finish, and what we do in the next three weeks will determine what happened here was a small step back or a big one. But the guys are competitors and they all feel they have something to prove.”
Sophomore Jason Burstyn recorded his best career finish in a major collegiate meet, tying for 29th with a 69-75-75?218 scorecard (8-over par) on the 6,900-yard, par-70 Ocean North Course at Pelican Hill Golf Club course. That bested the tie for 30th he had in last year's Big 12 Championship meet. He had a team best nine birdies here (19th best in the 82-man field), with 30 pars (tied for second most) and the team low in bogeys or worse with 15 (13 bogeys, two doubles). He played the par-5 holes this week at 4-under par, tied for third-best in the tourney.
Senior Luke Symons and junior Kevin Kring were CU's next best finishers, tying for 63rd with 16-over 226 scores; Symons closed with a 74 and Kring a 76. Symons endured a triple bogey on his fourth hole of the day (par-4 No. 3), and was 5-over after six holes, but settled down and played the last dozen at 1-under. He played the par-5's well like Burstyn, to the tune of 3-under for the six of them, 11th best in the field. Kring had 12 pars and six bogeys on his round, but did remain tied for the national lead in fewest holes with triple bogey or worse (zero in 324 holes) out of 6,600 golfers nationally.
Sophomore Pat Wilson closed with an 8-over 78 for a 236 total (26-over), as he placed 76th overall. He had the most birdies by Buff on the day with three, but had just seven pars with five bogeys and three doubles.
Sophomore Derek Fribbs shot a 77 to finish with a 28-over total of 238, placing him 78th. He has 12 pars, five bogeys and a double to close his tournament. Sophomore Johnny Widmer rounded out the CU contingent here, as he endured a frustrating round that saw him score one birdie and nine pars against three bogeys, two doubles and three triples, two of which came on his first two holes (Nos. 18 and 1).
San Diego's Kenneth McCready led from wire-to-wire in claiming medalist honors by two strokes. He wrapped things up with a 1-over 71 to finish at 7-under 203, one of just five players in the field to finish under par.
“Despite the score, I was encouraged by the guys' efforts,” Edwards said. “That's a good thing, it was only somewhat of an effort issue here and that's really been corrected. We're just struggling in general. This is the kind of golf course where if you're not totally on your game, you find yourself in a lot of trouble. Jason had a solid tournament, and a couple of other guys had a solid round here and there, but otherwise it was a struggle all week.
The Buffaloes have just under a month off to regroup before resuming play in the Bandon Dunes Invitational in Bandon, Ore., March 11-12.
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
T29. Jason Burstyn............................. 69-74-75?218
T63. Kevin Kring................................... 75-75-76?226
T63. Luke Symons.............................. 76-76-74?226
76. Pat Wilson.................................. 76-82-78?236
78. Derek Fribbs................................ 77-84-77?238
82. Johnny Widmer.......................... 83-78-85?246
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
1. Kenneth McCready, San Diego... 65-67-71?203
2. Patrick Cantley, UCLA................ 68-69-68?205
T3. Connor Driscoll, UCLA................ 67-68-71?206
T3. Patrick Reed, Augusta State...... 72-66-68?206
5. J.J. Spaun, San Diego State....... 70-69-68?207
TEAM SCORES
1. UCLA....................................... 353-353-351?1057
2. San Diego................................ 348-353-359?1060
3. Augusta State......................... 350-366-351?1065
4. Washington............................. 351-352-363?1066
5. Arizona State........................... 351-363-359?1073
6. Tennessee............................... 355-358-364?1077
7. San Diego State...................... 362-356-361?1079
8. Arkansas................................. 353-365-369?1087
9. Oregon State........................... 365-362-366?1093
10. UC-Davis................................. 355-373-374?1102
11. Long Beach State.................... 366-381-362?1109
12. Texas-Arlington...................... 372-366-380?1118
13. COLORADO............................. 373-385-380?1138
Players Mentioned
