Golfers Match Best Ever Score, Lead Wyoming Meet

PALM DESERT, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team matched its best single round program history here Friday, as the Buffaloes ended the first day of the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate atop the leaderboard.

CU turned in a 16-under par 272 team score, which tied for the previous best accomplished in the 2005 Taylor Made/Waikoloa Intercollegiate, also in the first round. It was Colorado's 10th consecutive round at or under par, adding to its team record in that category as the old mark had been six done on two previous occasions.

The last four of those rounds have been under par as have been eight of the 10; the team record for most consecutive rounds under par is also six. It all adds up to a four stroke lead for the Buffaloes, ranked No. 62 in the nation, as Pac-12 rivals No. 46 Oregon (272) and No. 67 Oregon State (283) round out the top three here.

All five of CU's designated scorers were under par, of which just 32 in the field of 128 players managed to accomplish Friday on the 7,305-yard, par-72 The Classic Course layout; Oregon had all four of its scorers turn in under par efforts as well, while Oregon State had all four shoot even or better.

Colorado as a team is now 26-under par for its last two rounds and 34-under for the spring (four rounds);the Buffaloes opened the spring two weeks ago with a 13th place finish in Hawai'i Hilo's Amer Ari Invitational, though their minus-18 final team score was the sixth best score in relation to par in any tournament in school history. The field here isn't as daunting as it was on the Big Island, but even with that 13th place effort, CU moved up 12 spots in the rankings.

"Today was obviously a very good day,” said CU head coach Roy Edwards. “Several things came together … the guys hit the ball well and were able to convert a lot of putts for the most part. We had a few mistakes on 10 and 11 but I was very proud of how the guys rebounded quickly from that and were able to have a good back nine and finish."

Freshman Yannik Paul equaled his career collegiate best, a 6-under 66 (nines of 32-24), which also enabled him to hold the individual lead by one stroke over Oregon's Thomas Lim. He scored an eagle and five birdies with 11 pars against a single bogey to arrive at his first round score and led the field in scoring on the par-5 holes, playing the four collectively at 5-under.

Junior David Oraee turned in his best round of the season, a 4-under 68, which has him tied for third. He had five birdies and 12 pars with just a single bogey on his way to his 12th career round in the 60s, the most on the current team. He played the tough par-4s here at 2-under, tied for the best in the field with just four other players.

Yet another freshman, Andrew Bonner, recorded his first career collegiate round in the 60s, matching Oraee's 4-under 68 and third place standing. He tied for the team-high with six birdies Fridays, which also were the third-most in the field, along with 10 pars and two bogeys.

Sophomore Philip Juel-Berg carded a 2-under 70, tying him for 13th. He also had six birdies to go with nine pars, two bogeys and a double. He was one of just a handful of golfers to play both the par-5s and par-3s under par Friday (3- and 1-under, respectively).

Freshman Jeremy Paul, CU's leader in stroke average, didn't even have his 1-under 71 count toward the team scoring; however, it was his fifth consecutive round under par (and ninth in his last 10); that ties the school record first set by John Lindberg in 1987 and then duplicated by Patrick Grady in 2008 and Kevin Kring in 2011. He fashioned his round with four birdies and 11 pars against three bogeys and stands tied for 23rd, thus making all five scoring Buffaloes finish in the top 25 for the round.

Two other Buffaloes are competing individually here. Sophomore Drew Trujillo carded an even-par 72, which has him tied for 33rd individually, but is second among 13 others not scoring for their teams here. He had a steady day, with three birdies, 12 pars and three bogeys.

Redshirt freshman Kraig McLeod is tied for 73rd with a 3-over 75, all the overage traced to a triple bogey he had to endure; otherwise he had two birdies, a team-best 13 pars, and two bogeys.

“Yannik was great. He hit the ball well and he scrambled well when he had to,” Edwards recounted. “David had a very solid round and is really developing. It was nice to see Andrew come out and play good. He has been working extremely hard and it was good to see some results for him. Philip was a little off but he still managed to dig out a very good score. Jeremy struggled a bit coming down the stretch and we expect him to be very good the last two days. Drew had a decent round and we expect Kraig to play better the last two rounds, he really just had that one bad hole."

Once totaled, CU's four scorers on Friday combined for an eagle, 22 birdies and 42 pars, with just seven holes worse than par (six bogeys, one double). The solid play enabled the Buffaloes to lead a tournament after the first round for the third time this year: on the previous two occasions, CU tied Washington State for the title its own Mark Simpson Invitational, and finished second in the UTEP Give 'Em Five Invitational to close the fall season.

"We have a long way to go,” Edwards added. “We need to focus on getting a good night's rest tonight and then executing the plans already in place tomorrow."

The second round will get underway at 8 a.m. MST on Saturday with staggered tee times off Nos. 1 and 10; Colorado is paired with the Oregon schools and UT Arlington with its tee times between 8:50 and 9:30. Sunday's final round start time to be determined.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

1.	Yannik Paul	32-34—66
T3.	Andrew Bonner	34-34—68
T3.	David Oraee	32-36—68
T13.	Philip Juel-Berg	34-36—70
T23.	Jeremy Paul	33-38—71
T33.	*Drew Trujillo	34-38—72
T73.	*Kraig McLeod	38-37—75

*—competed individually.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1.	Yannik Paul, Colorado	32-34—66
2.	Thomas Lim, Oregon	34-33—67
T3.	Andrew Bonner, Colorado	34-34—68
T3.	David Oraee, Colorado	32-36—68
T3.	Brandon McIver, Oregon	34-34—68
T3.	Brad Mason, UT-Arlington	33-35—68

TEAM STANDINGS

1.	COLORADO	272
2.	Oregon	276
3.	Oregon State	283
T4.	Santa Clara	284
T4.	UT-Arlington	284
6.	Idaho	289
T7.	Loyola-Marymount	290
T7.	San Francisco	290
T7.	Texas Tech	290
T7.	UC-Santa Barbara	290
T11.	Iowa State	291
T11.	Kansas State	291
T11.	Nebraska	291
T14.	Cal-Poly	293
T14.	TCU	293
16.	Louisiana-Monroe	294
T17.	Denver	298
T17.	Wyoming	298
T19.	Arkansas-Little Rock	299
T19.	Kansas	299
21.	UC-Riverside	300
22.	Southern Utah	301
23.	George Mason	306

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Players Mentioned

Andrew Bonner

Philip Juel-Berg

Kraig McLeod

David Oraee

Jeremy Paul

Yannik Paul

Drew Trujillo

Colorado University Athletics