Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Round Three
Golfers Under Par Second Straight Day, Finish 11th In Hawai'i
February 06, 2016 | Men's Golf
WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i — The University of Colorado men's golf team enjoyed another solid day in shooting under par for the second straight round in finishing 11th in the 25th annual University of Hawaii-Hilo's Amer Ari Invitational, which concluded here Saturday.
The Buffaloes recorded a second-straight 4-under 284 score to finish with an even-par 864 total for three rounds, as Colorado rebounded from being in a tie for 17th place after the first 18 holes.
Pac-12 Conference teams dominated the leaderboard, with six member schools finishing among the top seven, led by tournament champion and No. 7-ranked Southern California, which finished with a 29-under 835 score. The Trojans leapfrogged second-rounds leader and No. 23 UCLA (837) in the final round, beating the Bruins by four strokes on Saturday to win by two. No. 10 Arizona State and No. 30 Oregon tied for third (842), with No. 14 Oklahoma State fifth (845).
No. 5 Stanford was sixth (846) and No. 82 Oregon State grabbed seventh (848) in the 19-team field that featured nine schools ranked in the top 36 in the nation. Colorado – ranked No. 68 – rallied to defeat one of them, No. 29 Georgia Tech, after spending two-thirds of the final round with the low team score, until faltering a bit down the stretch. CU was 8-under at one point before the four players who would wind up scoring for the team Saturday closed out with five bogeys against a single birdie.
Junior Jeremy Paul, CU's stroke average leader (70.75) had opened with a pair of 73s but rallied with a final round 4-under 68 which enabled him to finish under par for the fourth time in seven tournaments this season. He would finish with a 2-under par 214 effort on the 7,074-yard, par-72 Waikoloa King's Course layout, tying him for 30th, after making seven birdies Saturday and 10 for the event, along with an eagle and 33 pars against 10 bogeys.
Juniors Ethan Freeman fired an even-par 72 and finished even overall (216) in tying for 42nd. He had a “mirror” round, with an eagle and five birdies sandwiching six pars against five bogeys and a double. He birdied four of his first eight holes, but unfortunately his double bogey fell in the middle of that run to sidetrack him a bit.
Freshman Wilson Belk fashioned a final round 2-over 74 after entering the day with CU's best score (142, or minus-2), eventually finishing with an even-par 216 score and thus also tying for 42nd. He unfortunately had some back luck to open his day, scoring a triple bogey on his first hole, the par-3 seventh, and was 4-over at one point before shaving a couple of strokes off by the time he finished.
Senior Philip Juel-Berg carded his best round of the meet, an even-par 72, as he would wrap things up with a 4-over 220 score, tying him for 68th. He had four birdies and 10 pars against four bogeys on Saturday, but three of those bogeys would come on his final three holes (Nos. 6 through 8). He had 11 birdies over the three rounds, tied for the team-high here with Freeman and Belk.
Sophomore John Souza was a third Buff to finish up with an even-par 72, enabling him to finish at 13-over 227 and tie for 97th. He started off solid all three rounds (a collective 1-under on his first 11 holes combined each round), but on Saturday, maintained his play through all 18 holes. He scored two birdies and 14 pars with two bogeys, with his 37 pars here a team-best for tournament, which also tied for 10th-most in the meet.
Freshman Pierce Aichinger competed here as an individual, and after a rough opening two rounds, rebounded to fire a 1-under 71 in the final round for a 13-over 229 total, tying him for 104th. He had five birdies and nine pars against with four bogeys to finish up here.
“It was another solid day,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “We were in position to have even a lower score but had a bit of a stumble at the end. We are encouraged, however, as the team is continuing to improve. Jeremy had a solid round and I was pleased with how John and Pierce bounced back. I can really see the team evolving and developing and we are looking forward to getting to the desert in a few weeks to compete again.”
Colorado was one of eight schools that turned in under par team scores the last two rounds, and tied for eighth for the best team score in those rounds – matching the 8-under 568 scored by the top two teams in the field, No. 1 Auburn and No. 5 Stanford.
The Pac-12 dominated the individual standings as it did after each of the first two rounds, and in the end, golfers from member schools occupied the top three spots and 14 of the top 16. Oregon's Aaron Wise scored the low round of the tournament – an 8-under 64 – to finish at 16-under 200 to claim medalist honors by two strokes over USC's Rico Hoey.
Colorado returns to action in two weeks in the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, set for February 19-21 in Palm Desert, Calif.
|
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
|
T30. |
73-73-68—214 |
|
|
T42. |
73-71-72—216 |
|
|
T42. |
75-67-74—216 |
|
|
T68. |
75-73-72—220 |
|
|
T97. |
78-77-72—227 |
|
|
T104. |
78-80-71—229 |
|
*—played as an individual. |
|
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS |
|
1. |
Aaron Wise, Oregon |
69-67-64—200 |
|
2. |
Rico Hoey, USC |
68-68-66—202 |
|
3. |
Maverick McNealy, Stanford |
68-68-67—203 |
|
4. |
Zachary Olsen, Oklahoma State |
69-67-69—205 |
|
T5. |
Jonathan Garrick, UCLA |
69-66-72—207 |
|
T5. |
Vince Whaley, Georgia Tech |
71-68-68—207 |
|
TEAM STANDINGS |
|
1. |
Southern California |
278-275-282—835 |
|
2. |
UCLA |
279-272-286—837 |
|
3. |
Arizona State |
290-271-281—842 |
|
3. |
Oregon |
282-279-281—842 |
|
5. |
Oklahoma State |
282-283-280—845 |
|
6. |
Stanford |
278-284-284—846 |
|
7. |
Oregon State |
286-272-290—848 |
|
8. |
TCU |
286-283-282—851 |
|
9. |
Texas Tech |
284-286-290—860 |
|
10. |
Auburn |
293-290-278—861 |
|
11. |
COLORADO |
296-284-284—864 |
|
12. |
Georgia Tech |
290-289-286—865 |
|
13. |
San Jose State |
285-291-291—867 |
|
13. |
Hawai'i |
289-291-287—867 |
|
15. |
Osaka Gakuin |
288-296-292—876 |
|
16. |
Hawai'i-Hilo |
290-299-294—883 |
|
16. |
Pacific |
294-290-299—883 |
|
18. |
UC Davis |
296-299-296—891 |
|
19. |
CSU-Monterey Bay |
297-305-294—896 |
