Golfers In Third In Wyoming's Desert Intercollegiate

Friday, February 17

Palm Springs, Calif.

All Day

Colorado

First Round

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

February 17, 2017 | Men's Golf

Painton Tied For Second Individually After Firing A 69

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

                PALM DESERT, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team stands in third place after the first round of the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, as the Buffaloes are gunning for their first win in the event they have finished as the runner-up twice.

                Colorado, ranked 21st by Golfweek and 24th by both the Golf Coaches Association of America and GolfStat, turned in a 3-over par score of 291, trailing No. 10 Oregon by nine shots, as the Ducks recorded the only under par team score of the day at 6-under 282. No. 58 TCU is second at 1-over 289, followed by CU, with No. 5 Texas Tech (292) and No. 32 Kansas (293) rounding out the top five.

                The Buffs were under par for most of the round, with their five designated scorers 4-under at the turn, with a collective seven birdies and just three bogeys. But the quintet would play the last seven holes at a combined 10-over, with just two birdies, six bogeys, a double bogey and a quadruple bogey. It ended a school-record run of seven straight rounds under par by the Buffs as a team.

                Junior Spencer Painton is tied for second individually after carding a 3-under 69 on the 7,322-yard, par-72 Classic Club course layout, one of just 10 subpar rounds scored Friday; Oregon was the only school to have two players accomplish it. Painton was steady, scoring three birdies and 15 pars, the third round this season by a Buff that featured no score higher than a par. He opened with eight straight pars and then made all his birdies in a four-hole stretch, scoring red numbers on Nos. 18, 2 and 3, which were a par-5, par-3 and par-4, respectively.

                Senior Jeremy Paul is tied for 15th after scoring a 1-over 73; he opened with a bogey on No. 10 and then proceeded to score two birdies and two more bogeys against 13 pars for the remainder of his round. A top 10 finish here will break a tie with Steve Jones for the most in a CU career, as both have 19.

                Junior Yannik Paul fired a 2-over 74 that has him tied for 28th. He was even through 13 holes and had two of his four bogeys down the stretch, otherwise he scored two birdies and 12 pars.

                Senior Ethan Freeman and junior John Souza both fashioned 3-over 75s, which has the pair tied for 45th. Both had 15 holes of par or better, with Freeman scoring three birdies and Souza one, and both had two bogeys. While Souza logged a double bogey, Freeman had some bad luck on the par-4 No. 5 hole, where he suffered a quadruple bogey.

                Three other Buffs are competing here as individuals, meaning their scores don't count toward the CU team total. Senior Ryan Schmitz and freshman Victor Bjorlow scored 4-over 76s and sophomore Wilson Belk a 7-over 79. Schmitz matched Freeman and Painton with a team-best three birdies, and both he and Belk had eight pars and seven birdies while Bjorlow scored 13 pars.

                 "Overall we're in a good position after the first round," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "It was pretty challenging weather-wise today with the winds picking up out here throughout the day. Ethan played pretty well just had a couple of bad swings on number five that that led to the quad but he rebounded quickly with a great birdie on the sixth hole. Spencer's round of 69 was a really, really good round. It was a really solid round from Spencer as he was in full command of his game. From the team perspective, it was a key score for us in the first round."

                Oregon's Norman Xiong is the individual leader, as he carded a 33-34—67, good for a two stroke lead over CU's Painter and two others.

                The Buffs finished second here in 2014 and 2016, by three strokes both times. The Classic Club offers participants a challenging test of golf; last year, no team finished under par and just eight players finished with subpar scores with two others matching par. The average score for the first round this year was well over four strokes over par at 76.53, though CU and Texas Tech were the only two schools to have all five of their designated scorers shoot 75 or better.

                The second round will commence Saturday at 8 a.m. MST off both the No. 1 and 10 tees; Colorado will be paired with the other leaders, Oregon, TCU and Texas Tech and will start on No. 1; the final round on Sunday will also feature a shotgun start at 8 a.m. MST.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS (*—playing as an individual)

T2.	Spencer Painton	34-35—69
T15.	Jeremy Paul	38-35—73
T28.	Yannik Paul	38-36—74
T45.	Ethan Freeman	40-35—75
T45.	John Souza	40-35—75
T57.	*Victor Bjorlow	38-38—76
T57.	*Ryan Schmitz	40-36—76
T90.	*Wilson Belk	40-39—79

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS

1.	Norman Xiong, Oregon	33-34—67
T2.	Spencer Painton, Colorado	34-35—69
T2.	Charlie Hillier, Kansas	35-34—69
T2.	Stefano Mazzoli, TCU	33-36—69
T5.	Edwin Yi, Oregon	34-36—70
T5.	Jack Ireland, CSU-Fullerton	36-34—70
T5.	Tyler Reynolds, UALR	33-37—70

TEAM SCORES

1.	Oregon	282
2.	TCU	289
3.	COLORADO	291
4.	Texas Tech	292
T5.	Kansas	293
T5.	UC-Fullerton	293
7.	Wyoming	297
8.	Loyola-Marymount	299
T9.	Arkansas-Little Rock	300
T9.	Nebraska	300
11.	Cal State Northridge	302
12.	Gonzaga	303
13.	UNC-Wilmington	304
13.	Denver	304
13.	Old Dominion	304
16.	Fresno State	305
16.	South Dakota State	305
18.	Stephen F. Austin	307
19.	Texas-Arlington	310
20.	Oral Roberts	311
21.	UC Riverside	312
22.	Southern Utah	321