Golfers Finish 14th at Western Intercollegiate

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The University of Colorado men's golf team finished 14th here Sunday in the 65th Annual Western Intercollegiate, the longest running college golf tournament west of the Mississippi River, the Buffaloes' final regular season competition ahead of next week's Big 12 Conference championship.

No. 3 UCLA won its third tournament of the year, besting a 15-team field that included nine teams ranked in the Top 30, seven from the Pac-10 Conference. The Bruins posted a 1,066 team score, 16-over par, defeating cross-town rival Southern California by eight shots (1,074). Defending NCAA champion and No. 7 Augusta State, and two-time Western Intercollegiate defending champion No. 26 Oregon tied for third at 1,076, with No. 7 San Diego State rounding out the top five with 1,085.

Colorado was in 14th place after the first and second rounds, and the Buffs couldn't exit the spot after recording a 33-over par score of 383 in the final round, finishing with a team score of 1,137 (83-over par).

Play was suspended Saturday with all teams still on the course, with one or two holes remaining to play. The second round was wrapped up first thing Sunday and the schools played continuously from there. This meet was also one of the few that have six golfers competing for each team, with five counting toward a school's overall team score. This was CU's third time playing in this format this season, and it hasn't been a boon for the Buffaloes, who have struggled to find some consistency in the fourth and fifth spots this season, much less six positions deep.

That meant that the Buffs opened on holes Nos. 9, 10 and 11 on the 6,615-yard, par-70 Pasatiempo Golf Course layout, and in the first round, the five CU scorers were 17-over after four holes; the knocked it down to just 4-over for the second round, but Sunday, they once again proved to be a nemesis. The six Colorado players had 10 pars, 10 bogeys and four doubles collectively on the first four holes, the five scorers at 13-over. Nos. 10 and 11 played the third and fifth toughest here this weekend.

"We obviously were hoping for something much better, but instead, it was another rough day for us, really similar to our start on Saturday," head coach Roy Edwards said. "Once again we got off to a bad start and had way too many big numbers and bogeys early. The only good thing was that we got in a lot of experience on the kinds of greens will see at Prairie Dunes (Big 12 Championship site) next week. The guys will keep working on the things they need to and on our course management in the coming days we have to prepare."

Junior Sebastian Heisele and sophomore Jason Burstyn turned in CU's best finishes in the meet, as both recorded 11-over par 221 totals to tie for 39th. Heisele, who had the fewest holes over par for CU here (15), closed with a 4-over 74, his round including three birdies and nine pars, while Burstyn wrapped things up with an 8-over 78 after a solid first two rounds. Burstyn's 10 birdies (two Sunday) on the weekend was a team best, and also tied for the 10th most in the 92-man field; however, CU had no other players in the top 25 of any statistical category here.

Sophomore Pat Wilson tied for 68th after a closing 6-over 76 gave him an 18-over 228 score; he led the Buffs Sunday with four birdies. Junior Kevin Kring shot a 7-over 77, with his 21-over 231 tying him for 72nd. He had 10 pars in each round, with his total of 30 second only to Heisele's 31 on the Buffs.

Senior Luke Symons recorded a third straight 79 Sunday for a 27-over total of 237, placing him 86th; he had an uncharacteristic tournament with almost half of his holes (26 of 54) over par, with just six birdies. He had come in playing his best golf of the season. Sophomore Derek Fribbs closed with an 8-over 78 for 33-over 243 score, which had him in 90th place. Like Symons, he had an inordinate number of holes over par (28) while tallying just four birdies to counter those.

New Mexico State's Tim Madigan recorded a final round 70, which gave him a 54-hole score of 207, or 3-under par overall. San Jose State's Mark Hubbard, Stanford's Andrew Yun and Augusta State's Patrick Reed tied for second at 209. Yun, the fourth ranked player nationally, was tied with Madigan for the individual lead at three-under until he double-bogeyed No. 2, his 17th on the day to finish the final round with a 71.

"We've kind of had a two-step forward, one-step back kind of spring, so hopefully the Big 12's will prove to be a two-step forward one for us," Edwards said. "I know we're capable of it, the guys know we're capable of it, but we just can't waste the shots we wasted here because you can't afford to do that and be successful."

The Buffaloes have four practice days prior to their last appearance in the Big 12 Championships, which are set for April 25-27 at Prairie Dunes Golf Club in Hutchinson, Kan. Colorado transitions to the Pac-12 Conference this July 1.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T39.	Jason Burstyn	72-71-78--221
T39.	Sebastian Heisele	74-73-74--221
T68.	Pat Wilson	78-74-76--228
T72.	Kevin Kring	79-75-77--231
86.	Luke Symons	79-79-79--237
90.	Derek Fribbs	84-81-78--243

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS

1.	Timothy Madigan, New Mexico St.	69-68-70--207
T2.	Andrew Yun, Stanford	68-70-71--209
T2.	Patrick Reed, Augusta State	66-75-68--209
T2.	Mark Hubbard, San Jose St.	69-69-71--209
T5.	Pontus Widegren, UCLA	65-72-73--210
T5.	Martin Trainer, USC	70-69-71--210

TEAM SCORES

1.	UCLA	347-348-371--1066
2.	Southern California	362-349-363--1074
3.	Oregon	360-364-352--1076
3.	Augusta State	355-357-364--1076
5.	San Diego State	354-367-364--1085
6.	San Jose State	363-366-358--1087
7.	Arizona State	355-368-366--1089
8.	New Mexico State	368-369-361--1098
9.	California	354-372-373--1099
10.	UC-Irvine	370-369-368--1107
11.	Stanford	375-366-372--1113
11.	Washington	361-381-371--1113
13.	Denver	380-370-368--1118
14.	COLORADO	382-372-383--1137
15.	Hawaii	393-387-383--1163

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Players Mentioned

Jason Burstyn

Derek Fribbs

Sebastian Heisele

Kevin Kring

Luke Symons

Pat Wilson