Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
All Rounds
CU GOLF: Men Finish Tied For 18th In Season Opener
February 03, 2012 | Men's Golf
WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i - The University of Colorado men's golf team wrapped its first tournament of the spring season, moving up one spot in finishing tied for 18th place in the 22nd Annual Amer Ari Invitational, which was completed here Friday.
No. 1-ranked Texas led from wire-to-wire, playing the final round at 11-under par in closing with an 834 score, or 30 strokes under par. No. 11 Southern California moved up a notch and took the runner-up spot with an 839 total, followed by No. 8 Stanford (844), No. 9 Georgia Tech (845) and No. 4 UCLA (846) in what was a tight battle for the bronze position in the standings.
The Buffaloes, ranked No. 55, recorded a 10-over 298 team score Friday but managed to catch Hawaii to tie for 18th with 884 (20-over par) scores.
Junior Derek Fribbs scored a third successive 1-under 71 on the 7,074-yard, par-72 Waikoloa King's Course to finish with a 3-under 213, tying him for 23rd place. His nines were the same all three days (36-35), and he birdied eight different holes (one twice) and scoring an eagle on a ninth. He led the Buffs with nine birdies, recorded 36 pars (second best) and was the only Buff not to score anything higher than a bogey.
Junior Beau Schoolcraft turned in CU's second best final round effort, a 3-over 75 that gave him a 10-over 226 for the week, tying him for 89th. He had six birdies and 33 pars on the week, shooting 37 on the front nine all three rounds, and had only one hole worse than a bogey (a double Friday on No. 5).
Junior Jason Burstyn also tied for 89th with a 226 total, but struggled on Friday with a closing 9-over 81. He took a triple bogey on No. 18, his fifth hole of the day, to move to 5-over after as many holes, and then closed with a double bogey after he had settled down. He still scored the second most birdies for the week by a Buff with eight, along with scoring 31 pars.
Freshman David Oraee tied for 93rd after posting a 76 Friday, which gave him a 227 score (11-over). He had five birdies and 34 pars for the week, and also had just one hole worse than bogey (a double during his second round).
Senior Kevin Kring ended with a 4-over 76, finishing tied for 103rd with a 230 score. He led the Buffs in stroke average in the fall (71.42, 4-under par for 12 rounds combined) but just couldn't get things going here. He did lead the team in pars with 37, while also recording five birdies; but the last player in the nation in 2010-11 to score worse than a double bogey on any hole had two instances here in excess, along with two doubles, that accounted for 11 of his 14 strokes over par.
Kring and Schoolcraft did close on good notes, birdying their final hole; Fribbs scored a birdie on his next-to-last hole to get back under par.
Junior Johnny Widmer played as an individual (his score did not count toward CU's team total) closed things out with an 80, giving him a 246 for three rounds (20-over), which tied him for 110th place. He had five birdies and 29 pars on the week, but struggled down the stretch each day, finishing 11-over on his last six holes after playing the first 12 at 9-over combined in the 54 holes.
"It was another frustrating day from the standpoint of making way too many course management mistakes that led to huge numbers," head coach Roy Edwards said. "We were especially poor on the scoring holes; we were even par through about 12 holes today and in good position. We then played some of the easiest holes at about 10-over."
CU had Fribbs' one eagle, the rest of the field had 40; the Buffs scored 38 birdies compared to 1,049 by the other 19 teams, and were 3-over collectively on the par-5s in the final round.
"Right now we just aren't very good at course management," he continued. "Our talent doesn't do us any good if we continue to throw away shots. It is always difficult for us to come to this event and be competitive but we could have been a lot better with how we played. It was our course management that really cost us from a good finish this week. Derek played solid overall, but he knows with some better management he could have had a great finish instead of just a good one."
USC's Jeffrey Kang and Texas' Jordan Spieth tied for medalist honors, each recording 11-under 205 scores. UCLA's Pontus Widegren, the leader after each of the first two rounds, shot a final round 74 and slipped to a tie for sixth with a 209 score; 38 players in the 115-man field finished under par with an addition four matching it.
This was likely one of the toughest regular season fields ever, with eight of the nation's top 14 teams competing (14 in the top 57) and seven of the current top 10 ranked amateurs in the world. It was a mini-preview of this April's Pac-12 Championships with eight member schools participating, five of whom finished in the top eight this week.
Colorado, now 40-36-2 against Division I teams this season, will get some practice time and then the chance to compete again in three weeks in the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, scheduled for February 25-26 in Palm Desert, Calif.
|
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS (played as an individual) |
|||
|
T23. |
71-71-71--213 |
||
|
T89. |
71-74-81--226 |
||
|
T89. |
78-73-75--226 |
||
|
T93. |
72-79-76--227 |
||
|
T103. |
77-77-76--230 |
||
|
T110. |
79-77-80--236 |
||
|
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS |
|||
|
T1. |
Jeffrey Kang, USC |
67-69-69--205 |
|
|
T1. |
Jordan Spieth, Texas |
69-69-67--205 |
|
|
3. |
Patrick Rodgers, Stanford |
67-69-71--207 |
|
|
T4. |
James White, Georgia Tech |
69-74-65--208 |
|
|
T4. |
Andrew Yun, Stanford |
69-74-65--208 |
|
|
TEAM SCORES |
|||
|
1 |
Texas |
270-287-277--834 |
|
|
2 |
Southern California |
276-285-278--839 |
|
|
3 |
Stanford |
282-285-277--844 |
|
|
4 |
Georgia Tech |
278-289-278--845 |
|
|
5 |
UCLA |
275-285-286--846 |
|
|
6 |
TCU |
291-283-280--854 |
|
|
7 |
Washington |
275-287-293--855 |
|
|
8 |
Arizona State |
286-285-293--864 |
|
|
9 |
Oklahoma State |
285-291-289--865 |
|
|
10 |
San Francisco |
285-296-287--868 |
|
|
10 |
Texas Tech |
285-294-289--868 |
|
|
12 |
Oregon |
284-300-285--869 |
|
|
13 |
San Jose State |
293-288-290--871 |
|
|
14 |
Chico State |
289-291-294--874 |
|
|
15 |
Osaka Gakuin |
288-296-291--875 |
|
|
16 |
Hawai'i-Hilo |
294-291-292--877 |
|
|
17 |
Oregon State |
291-294-294--879 |
|
|
18 |
COLORADO |
291-295-298--884 |
|
|
18 |
Hawai'i |
293-290-301--884 |
|
|
20 |
UC-Davis |
299-306-298--903 |
|
