Golfers Wrap Fall Season With Eighth Place In UCLA's Gifford

CARLSBAD, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team wrapped up its fall season here Wednesday with an eighth place finish in UCLA's 11th Annual Gifford Collegiate, which featured arguably one of the nation's strongest fields.

Washington, ranked No. 53 prior to this event, held onto its second round lead and won the team title with the only score in red numbers, a 6-under 846 total. The Huskies, with three individuals in the top five, pulled away from the field by scoring a 2-over 286 in the final round, also the best score on the day. No. 5 Stanford finished second (855), followed by No. 23 San Diego State (865), No. 28 UCLA (866) and No. 41 Arkansas (871) in rounding out the top five.

The Buffaloes shot a 299 team score Wednesday (15-over par) to finish with a 25-over 877. Colorado defeated three teams ranked in the top 50, Texas A&M (No. 25), Tennessee (No. 38) and Northwestern (No. 48) in a field that had nine overall, including five in the top 30. The Buffs have hovered in the 70s for the latter half of the fall, but should move up considerably in the final fall rankings in a few weeks.

Senior Philip Juel-Berg entered the final round in contention for medalist honors, and was 1-under through four holes. But a double bogey on No. 5 followed by a bogey placed him on the wrong side of par, and then two more boges in his next four holes ended his chase for top honors. He still tied for eighth after carding a 4-over 75 on the 6,996-yard, par-71 La Costa Legends Course, which gave him a 1-over 214 for the tournament. He scored the most birdies in the 81-man field (14) in recording the ninth top10 finish of his career, three of which came this fall.

Junior Jeremy Paul tied for 16th after firing a 3-over 74 Wednesday, CU's best score in the final round; he finished a 4-over 217. After riding a rollercoaster of sorts in the second round (only six pars with everything else from an eagle to a triple bogey), he scored a birdie and 13 pars against four bogeys to close his effort. It was his 16th top 20 finish of his CU career, tying him for the 10th-most in CU history.

Paul ended the fall season with a 70.65 stroke average, edging Juel-Berg's 70.76 for the team's top honor; however both best the previous best fall number by a Buffalo, a 71.00 recorded by Derek Tolan back in the 2008-09 season.

Junior Ethan Freeman fashioned a 4-over 75 to finish in a 41st place tie at 10-over 223; he was one of the few players in the field and the only CU golfer to play the front nine under par (minus-1), but struggled on the back side with five birdies.

Freshman Ross Macdonald completed CU's effort here, posting an 83 to finish at 18-over 231; he had shot even par in the second round and was even Wednesday through five holes, but a double on No. 6, a triple on the par-3 No. 8 and a bogey on 9 sidetracked the rest of his round.

Freshman Wilson Belk turned in a 4-over 75 to wrap things up with a 14-over 227, tying him for 60th. After a rough start which saw him score a pair of doubles in his first five holes, he settled down to play the rest of his round even, the best effort Wednesday by a Buff over the last 13 holes. He had seven birdies and 30 pars for the week, 14 of the latter in the final round, the most by a Buff.

“The guys did a really good job today fighting and grinding,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “It was a really tough day on the golf course, the conditions were windy with very difficult hole locations. It wasn't our best round but I'm really proud of the guys effort and competitiveness today.

“All in all it was a solid tournament as we got some really strong head-to-head wins over some very good teams. Phillip and Jeremy had solid weeks. Wilson had a solid round today as well. I saw good things from everybody this week and it's a good way to finish off the fall season.”

Colorado led the field in par-5 scoring (a collective 16-under par) and scored the fourth-most birdies (42); the Buffs were sixth on the par-4 holes (plus 37), but the par-3 holes CU never managed to get under control, finishing next to last out of the 15 schools at 26-over.

There was a three-way tie for medalist honors between Washington's Chris Babcock and Corey Pereira and Stanford's Maverick McNealy, all of whom finished with 4-under 209 scores. McNealy, considered one of if not the top collegiate player in the nation, rallied to tie for his ninth collegiate win by shooting the best score in the final round (4-under 67).

Colorado now has the better part of the next three months off ahead the start of its spring season. Edwards was pleased with how his team meshed together in the fall, as four returning lettermen helped to groom five newcomers, all of whom saw significant action to begin their CU careers.

"Phillip and Jeremy were really strong for us all fall as they led the team both on the course and with their leadership overall,” Edwards said. “Ethan took a step forward this year as he did a lot of good things. I'm really proud of what we've gotten out of our new guys with Ross really stepping his game up and Wilson showing some good things late in the fall. We look forward to having everyone work hard this offseason and be ready to go in the spring. The guys get along well and work hard together.

“Overall, I'm pleased with how things went this fall,” he added. “Other than three rounds (he could single out), we had a strong fall season. We just need to keep working hard when we play poorly to mitigate the damage in those rounds. I definitely think that we did that this week. The guys deserve the credit for this as they really focused on it. We are very encouraged for the future.”

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T8	Philip Juel-Berg	69-70-75—214
T16	Jeremy Paul	71-72-74—217
T41	Ethan Freeman	75-73-75—223
T60	Wilson Belk	78-74-75—227
T71	Ross Macdonald	77-71-83—231

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1	Maverick McNealy, Stanford	72-70-67—209
1	Chris Babcock, Washington	71-69-69—209
1	Corey Pereira, Washington	69-68-72—209
4	Jonathan Garrick, UCLA	71-70-69—210
5	Frank Garber, Washington	72-69-71—212
5	David Boote, Stanford	71-68-73—212

TEAM STANDINGS

1	Washington	285-275-286—846
2	Stanford	285-277-293—855
3	San Diego State	290-282-293—865
4	UCLA	287-288-291—866
5	Arkansas	290-289-289—871
6	Oregon	287-290-294—871
7	South Florida	290-288-298—876
8	COLORADO	292-286-299—877
9	Tennessee	296-298-289—883
10	Wisconsin	294-299-293—886
11	Texas A & M	292-299-296—887
12	Northwestern	298-290-301—889
13	Harvard	298-293-301—892
14	Marquette	299-293-305—897
15	San Jose State	306-307-305—918