Short-handed Buffs 17th In Stanford's "The Goodwin"

Thursday, March 26

Stanford Golf Course: Stanford, Calif.

All Day

Colorado

The Goodwin

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

March 26, 2015 | Men's Golf

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team, down one player due to illness, battled through it and stands in 17th place in Stanford's “The Goodwin,” the first round of which was completed here Thursday.

No. 33 TCU blitzed the field, as the Horned Frogs had all five players shoot in the 60s, including a trio of 65s, to record a 16-under team score of 264. That is good for an eight-shot lead over No. 38 Alabama-Birmingham, which is in at 8-under 272; No. 25 UNLV and No. 69 UC Davis are tied for third (274) and host and No. 7 Stanford fifth (276).

The No. 37 Buffaloes recorded a 5-over par 285 score, which has them in 17th place out of 24 teams in the field, which features a dozen schools in the top 70.

CU junior Philip Juel-Berg came down with what appeared to be some kind of 24-hour flu and remained at the team hotel Thursday. Minus his 74.7 stroke average, the Buffs had no room for error as all four remaining players would have their score count toward the team total instead of everyone else in the field having the usual five playing and scoring the best four.

Senior David Oraee had the best day by a Buffalo, opening with a 5-under par 65 on the 6,727-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Course configuration. It was his second-best first round score of his collegiate career, both gross and in relation to par, as he had five birdies and 13 pars for his efforts Thursday. He is one of six players tied for second place through 18 holes.

Sophomore Yannik Paul turned in a 1-over par 71, tying him for 51st. He recorded two birdies and 13 pars with three bogeys in his start here.

Sophomore Ethan Freeman scored a 4-over par 74 for his opening round, fashioning two birdies and 11 pars against four bogeys and one double. Tied for 92nd, he got into some late trouble, as he was just 1-over par with three holes remaining, but was undone a bit by a double-bogey 7 on No. 16 and a bogey on No. 17.

Sophomore Jeremy Paul, CU's stroke average leader at 71.4 entering this week, carded a 5-over 75 which has him tied for 103rd. He had one birdie, which came late in the round, with 13 pars, three bogeys and a triple in his second-highest round of the year over par; he's had just three tournaments out of eight where he finished over par, and just once more than 5-over. And how rare was that triple bogey for Paul? It was just the fifth of his college career out of 1,080 holes played.

It's always hard to know the effect of losing the services of a player like Juel-Berg, who was entered as CU's No. 4 golfer for this meet. The slot is usually that of an anticipated scorer, and the pressure it puts on the four remaining teammates might force more conservative play. But that wasn't the case for the Buffs.

“To be honest, we didn't try to change anything with Philip out, I just wanted them to concentrate on their own games and they did a good job of that,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “David obviously had a real nice round, and that helped a ton. He played really solid overall and put himself in the correct angles on the greens. With these hole locations, you can't miss on certain sides and he did that consistently and made a few putts along the way.”

Edwards wasn't concerned with the unusual struggles of Jeremy Paul on Thursday.

“I'm never worried about Jeremy,” Edwards said. “His expectations will be to come out tomorrow and play a much better round.” Four times in his career when he's turned in a round four or more strokes over par, he came back with score at least seven strokes lower in the next.

UNLV's John Oda has the individual lead through one round, as he carded a 6-under 64, scoring 32 on each nine; he has six birdies and 12 pars with no bogeys on his day.

Edwards anticipated having Juel-Berg back for the final two rounds, and acknowledged the Buffs have to play some catch-up, but wasn't overly alarmed by it.

“We just need to keep doing what we're doing, it's a long tournament and we're just one round in,” he said. “The guys are in a good mindset, their games are in good places – so we just need to continue doing what we do.”

The second round is set for Friday; the Buffs will be paired with Colorado State and UAB for a second straight day and will tee off starting on No. 10 at 2:10 p.m. MDT.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T 2.	David Oraee	32-33—65
T 51.	Yannik Paul	35-36—71
T 92.	Ethan Freeman	35-39—74
T103.	Jeremy Paul	36-39—75
132.	Philip Juel-Berg	WD

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1.	John Oda, UNLV	32-32—64
T2.	David Oraee, Colorado	32-33—65
T2.	Paul Barjon, TCU	32-33—65
T2.	Andrew Presley, TCU	33-32—65
T2.	Julien Brun, TCU	31-34—65
T2.	Jake Kelley, Denver	33-32—65
T2.	Seb Crookall-Nixon, USF	31-34—65

TEAM STANDINGS

1.	TCU	264
2.	Alabama-Birmingham	272
3.	UC Davis	274
3.	Nevada-Las Vegas	274
5.	Stanford	276
6.	St. Mary's	277
6.	Washington State	277
8.	San Jose State	278
9.	SMU	279
10.	San Francisco	280
10.	Oregon	280
12.	Pepperdine	281
12.	Santa Clara	281
14.	Brigham Young	282
14.	Loyola-Marymount	282
16.	Denver	283
17.	COLORADO	285
18.	Minnesota	287
19.	Northwestern	288
20.	Boise State	290
20.	Southern California	290
22.	Arizona	291
22.	Colorado State	291
24.	Princeton	296