Colorado University Athletics
Golfers To Again Open Spring Season in Paradise
February 04, 2016 | Men's Golf
WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i — The University of Colorado men's golf team will open the spring portion of its 2015-16 schedule for the 11th straight year here Thursday in the 25th annual Amer Ari Hawaii-Hilo Invitational.
The tournament, which runs this Thursday through Saturday, will provide an indication of where the No. 68 Buffaloes stand nationally right from the start this spring, and not just nationally; with six other Pac-12 schools competing, the Buffs will get an early idea of where they stand in the conference.
Annually, the field competing here is one of the strongest in the spring, and it's again no exception this year, as four of the top 10, six of the top 25 and nine top 50 schools will be represented in the field. It also includes 11 of the nation's top 40 individuals.
Colorado will be joined in the field by league counterparts Stanford (ranked No. 5 by both GolfStat and Golfweek), Southern California (7, 9), Arizona State (10, 15), UCLA (23, 29), Oregon (30, 32) and Oregon State (82, 70). Other top schools competing include the nation's No. 1 team across the board in Auburn, Oklahoma State (12 GS, 17 GW), Georgia Tech (29, 27) and Texas Tech (36, 33).
The three-day tournament is a real treat for the participants, as the tournament will be played on the renowned 7,074-yard, par-72 Waikoloa King's Course on Hawai'i's Big Island, a Scottish links-style layout with fairways interspersed between ancient lava fields, along with numerous lakes and pot bunkers. The teams will play 18 holes each day in a shotgun start format at 10:30 a.m. MST in weather expected to be near-perfect with temperatures in the mid-70s with little chance of precipitation, though the trade winds can often kick up on occasion.
Colorado head coach Roy Edwards felt his team had a strong fall season considering he had the task of incorporating five newcomers, including three true freshmen. The Buffs won two tournaments, both in Colorado (Ballyneal Challenge, CU's own Mark Simpson Invitational) and finished second in the Air Force Falcon Invitational, but had some slight struggles in three other meets that Edwards attributed to one bad round in each.
"We are very excited to get the season started this week,” Edwards said. “We had a good weekend in Arizona (at an alumni match two weekends ago) and good practices in Boulder last week. The guys are very motivated to compete at a high level here at the Amer Ari and the entire season. This is always a special place to start the year."
“This tournament is almost always ranked as one of the top 10 amateur tournaments in the world, not just in college golf, due to the players it attracts,” Edwards added. “It's often ranked higher than all of the regionals, and this year appears to be no exception. It's truly an elite tournament, and our guys are motivated to go out and perform well.”
Six Buffaloes are on trip: senior Philip Juel-Berg (70.8 fall stroke average), juniors Jeremy Paul (70.7, the team leader) and Ethan Freeman (72.2), sophomore John Souza (76.3) and freshmen Wilson Beck (73.4) and Pierce Aichinger (76.3). Aichinger will be playing as an individual while the other five will count toward CU's team scoring total in the event; Juel-Berg, Paul and Freeman played in all six fall tournaments, while Belk competed in five, Aichinger four and Souza just two, as he was hampered with a back injury much of the fall.
CU finished 12th in a field of 18 last year, mainly due to a rough first round (a 7-over 295); but the Buffaloes came back with a second round 271, the 17-under par score its best single round of the entire season, and an 8-under 280 in the final round. Then-sophomore Yannik Paul led the Buffs with an 8-under 208 score, which tied him for 18th.
