Golfers Tied For Sixth At Midway Point Of Pac-12 Championships

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Colorado men's golf team opened strong but one poor stretch sidetracked the Buffaloes, who are in sixth place after the first two rounds of the 57th Annual Pac-12 Conference Championships.

No. 4 and two-time defending champion Stanford tried its best to pull away from pack, standing at 22-under par with a 688 score through 36 holes. After starting with a 3-under 352, the Cardinal's five scorers recorded an eagle, 27 birdies and 52 pars against just 10 bogeys in posting an impressive 19-under 336 total for the second round.

How impressive were the Cardinal? The score they didn't count in the second round was a 72 – from the player who was the individual leader with a 66 after the opening round.

No. 13 California, however, turned in a 12-under second round score for a 693 total, and thus remain on the heels of the Cardinal. No. 2 Southern California is third (704), followed by No. 10 Arizona State (711) and No. 24 Washington (715) to round out the top five.

Colorado, ranked No. 66, is tied with No. 53 UCLA for sixth with 13-over par 723 totals in the six-for-five format (the low five scores count toward the team total instead of the usual four).

CU was hovering between second and third, just a couple of strokes out of the lead, for most of the first round. But the last five holes (Nos. 5 through 9) weren't very kind to the Buffaloes, as the six players were a combined 8-over par, dropping CU into a tie for sixth with Washington, at the time 10 shots behind front-runner Cal.

Junior Jeremy Paul is tied for third after turning in a 67-68—135 scorecard on the 7,209-yard, par-71 Salt Lake Country Club Course layout. He played all hole configurations under par – the par-3s (-1), par-4s (-1) and the par-5s (-5), tied for fourth, seventh and first, respectively in the field as he had an eagle, nine birdies and 22 pars against only four bogeys for his day. The four holes worse than par were also tied for the third fewest in the field.

That first round 67 tied the second best gross score ever recorded by Buff in conference championship history, behind only a 66 by Matt Call in the 1999 Big 12 meet, and matched Bill Musselman's first round score in the '68 Big Eight's. Paul's second round 68 thus tied for the fourth-best league title meet score and in the process he became the first Buff to record two sub-69 scores, with his 36-hole total of 135 besting Musselman's 138 for the best CU score after two rounds in a conference championship.

Paul added to his school record with his sixth and seventh consecutive rounds in the 60s (the previous best heading into this season had been three on several occasions). He also continued his incredible management of his game, as in 16 rounds this spring, Paul has just one hole worse than bogey (out of 288) – a double back in February, and he has had none over the last 10-plus rounds (187 holes). It's his best start in three times at the Pac-12s, previously starting 76-78 and 76-74.

Sophomore John Souza fashioned a 76-70—146 scorecard, and stands tied for 36th. After scoring four bogeys and a double in the first round, he came back strong with three birdies and 13 pars against just two bogeys the second time around the SLCC track. He was cruising in the morning, just 1-over with four to play, but would play the last four at 4-over, including a double on No. 9; but in the afternoon, he was 1-under heading into that same four hole stretch and played them even.

Junior Ethan Freeman is tied for 40th after posting a 75-73—148 scorecard; at 6-over par, he was essentially kept out of red numbers by just three bad holes. His six birdies on the day all came on the back nine (Nos. 10-18), as he was 1-over after his opening nine but was 3-over on the front side to close his morning round. In the afternoon, he opened with his only bogey of the round but bounced right back with two birdies to get to 1-under, and four holes later scored a double but answered that with two consecutive birds to make the turn at minus-1. On the back nine, he scored eight pars – but his one blemish on the par-5 4th, he struggled and scored a triple. Thus, he was 1-under for 33 holes and 7-over on the remaining three.

Senior Philip Juel-Berg opened the day looking like he would run away with medalist honors – he was 4-under through nine after shooting a 31 on SLCC's back nine. But two consecutive doubles then dropped him back to even, and he'd finish with a 1-over 72. In the second round, he managed 13 pars but no birdies in recording a 77; his 149 total has him tied for 45th.

CU's two freshmen competing here, Wilson Belk and Ross Macdonald, both also turned in 8-over 149 totals for 36 holes and thus are also tied for 45th; Belk turned in rounds of 74-75, while Macdonald carded a 72-77 effort. Both wound up getting there in an identical manner: four birdies, 23 pars, seven bogeys and two doubles.

Macdonald was 1-under after the first nine until scoring a double (on No. 1), and was still even until scoring a bogey on the last hole to finish the morning around at 1-over; he doubled his second hole in round two and was 4-over through six, but settled down after that. Belk opened 2-over through six but then held steady until also bogeying No. 9 to end his first round, and he too doubled the par-3 11th early in his second round. He got back to even at the turn but played the last nine at 4-over.

"Jeremy had another good day," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "He was just in control of his game from start to finish and really did a lot of good things. John and Ethan had nice second rounds, and Wilson definitely helped us both rounds. Philip got off to a good start, but struggled a little bit but actually did a good job to shoot a 72 in the first round. He just couldn't get much going in the afternoon. Ross had a good first round as well, so everyone is contributing."

Stanford has all six of its players land in the top 20 after 36 holes, though Cal's K.K. Limbhasut is the individual leader after a pair of 66s for a 10-under 132; Stanford's David Boote is two strokes back (68-66). Cal, USC and Colorado are the only other schools with all six players in the top 45.

"All in all, it was a nice start, but we're in a pretty good position," Edwards said. "Eliminating the big numbers is going to be big for us Saturday. Stanford and Cal have been playing great golf, so it's not surprising they played well. But our spirits are good. Tomorrow will be big, because if you have a good third round, you set yourself up for a good finish. You just want to go out and play smart, solid with confidence. We just need to move on from today, get some rest and be prepared for tomorrow."

The third round of the Pac-12's will commence at 10 a.m. MDT Saturday morning. Colorado will be paired with Arizona State and Washington and will tee off on No. 1 between 10 and 10:55. The fourth and final round is set for an 8 a.m. start on Sunday.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T3.	Jeremy Paul	67-68—135
T36.	John Souza	76-70—146
T40.	Ethan Freeman	75-73—148
T45.	Philip Juel-Berg	72-77—149
T45.	Ross Macdonald	72-77—149
T45.	Wilson Belk	74-75—149

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1.	K.K. Limbhasut, California	66-66—132
2.	David Boote, Stanford	68-66—134
T3.	Jeremy Paul, Colorado	67-68—135
T3.	Jonathan Garrick, UCLA	67-68—135
5.	Jon Rahm, Arizona State	70-66—136
T6.	Franklin Huang, Stanford	66-72—138
T6.	Sebastian Crampton, California	67-71—138
T8.	Jordan Gumberg, Arizona	68-71—139
T8.	Jared duToit, Arizona State	69-70—139
T8.	Justin Suh, USC	70-69—139
T8.	Ryan Slater, USC	70-69—139

TEAM STANDINGS

1.	Stanford	352-336—688
2.	California	350-343—693
3.	Southern California	356-348—704
4.	Arizona State	359-352—711
5.	Washington	360-355—715
6.	COLORADO	360-363—723
6.	UCLA	358-365—723
8.	Oregon	370-356—726
9.	Arizona	361-367—728
10.	Oregon State	371-365—736
11.	Utah	378-363—741
12.	Washington State	380-365—745