Oraee Slips In Standings At NCAA Golf Championship Finals

Saturday, May 30

The Concession Golf Club: Bradenton, Fla.

All Day

Colorado

NCAA Championships

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

Oraee Slips In Standings At NCAA Golf Championship Finals

May 30, 2015 | Men's Golf

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

BRADENTON, Fla. — University of Colorado senior David Oraee entered the second round of the NCAA Golf Championship Finals Saturday in good shape to make Sunday's 54-hole cut, but struggled from practically on the onset in recording a 13-over par 85 and in the process fell into the lower third of the standings.

Oraee, playing as an individual, has a 12-over 156 total which has him tied for 124th place, falling from a tie for 13th after 18 holes. The 85 was a season-high and also matched his career high in college competition.

There will be a cut following Sunday's third round, as the top 15 teams (out of 30) and the best nine individuals not associated with those teams will advance into Monday's final round.

The situation is most fluid with the likelihood that several teams will swap in and out of the top 15, but right now Oraee is nine strokes out of the ninth individual's score (147) that would qualify to advance.

“There's really not much we can say, David was just a little off his game,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “This golf course is such that if you are even just a tiny bit off, you will have a hard time quickly. That was the case today. But David will put it behind him and come out and compete tomorrow. He's not necessarily out of range of making the cut but knows he'll need to play a great round Sunday.”

Oraee began play Saturday starting on No. 10, the tougher of the two nines, with six of the holes in the top 10 in relation to par on the plus side. He bogeyed Nos. 11 and 14 and the doubled the 442-yard, par-4 16th hole, his first double bogey in the finals and just his second in his last 79 holes. He finished off the side with a 40 with two pars, including one on No. 18 which played as the second toughest hole of the day (+0.44 over par).

The front nine of the 7,483-yard, par-72 Concession Golf Club course was no friendlier for Oraee, as he scored two bogeys, two doubles and a triple for a 45 on the side. The triple came on the 377-yard, par-4 No. 8 hole, which is playing the fourth toughest through two rounds. The significance of that was that it saw the end of likely one of the most remarkable streaks in college golf – Oraee's last score worse than a double was a quadruple bogey some 26 months ago, a span that covered 1,563 holes.

You know it wasn't Oraee's day when he didn't have at least one birdie -- just the second time in 37 rounds this season he didn't make at least one as he averages over three per round.

The individual lead was taken over by SMU's Bryson Dechambeau, who carded a 5-under 67 for a 7-under 137 score; first round co-leader Thomas Denty of Illinois is two back at 139 after a 71 Saturday, with LSU's Zach Wright third (70-70—140).

No. 13 Southern California jumped from third to first in wrestling the lead away from Illinois, as the Trojans own a 2-under team score of 574. The No. 4 Illini are right there, just three back at 577, with No. 33 Georgia falling a spot into a third place tie with No. 9 LSU (581). No. 5 Vanderbilt used the best round of the day, a 4-under 284, to jump from 20th into a tie for fifth with No. 14 South Florida (585).

Oraee will tee off on No. 1 at Noon (MDT) Sunday, and will be paired with Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Louisville) and once again with Troy's Tolver Dozier (Troy). Perhaps some history will be on Oraee's side; the best score in CU's NCAA tournament history was shot in the third round – a 65 by Hale Irwin on his way to the 1967 individual title (it included a hole-in-one).

NOTES: Saturday's weather was hot and humid, the temperature reaching 89 degrees in midafternoon with the humidity at 55 percent; there was a 9 mile per hour wind blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico (which is 10 miles west of the course) ... Oraee saw a string of four straight rounds under par come to an end, which tied for the fourth-longest in school history with several others ... The average score Saturday – 75.47 – was a shade under Friday's (75.54) and thus the average for 312 rounds is 75.51 … Other than first-place USC, the Pac-12 is in danger of not advancing any other schools into the final 15; Oregon is tied for 14th, Washington is 17th, UCLA 19th, Arizona State a surprising 24th (the Sun Devils are the No. 3 team in the nation) and Stanford 26th.