Golfers Open In A Second Place Tie At Bandon Dunes

Sunday, March 12

Bandon, Ore.

All Day

Colorado

First Round

Painton's 69 led the Buffaloes on the Oregon Coast Sunday.

Photo by: Chip Bromfield, ProMotion Ltd.

March 12, 2017 | Men's Golf

Painton's 69 tops CU scorers in the first round

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

BANDON, Ore. — The University of Colorado men's golf team continued its solid play this spring here Sunday and is tied for second place after the first round of the 8th Annual Bandon Dunes Championship.

No. 8 Oregon owns the lead after the first round with a 13-under score of 275 after placing three scorers in the top six in the standings. No. 21 Colorado and No. 9 Texas Tech are tied for second at 5-under 283, with No. 23 Auburn one back at 284. Three schools are tied for fifth in the 16-team field, No. 12 Texas A&M, No. 71 Georgia State and No 87 Oregon State.

For the fourth time this season, it could be another CU-Oregon duel, and for third time in as many tournaments this spring. Colorado is 1-2 against the defending national champions (4-6 in individual rounds), with just 11 strokes separating the two northern golf powers.

"Overall it was a good day but a little up and down overall," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "We didn't play (holes) 10 through 12 very well, although those are some very hard holes. We did a lot of really good things almost everywhere else however. Spencer (Painton) had a really nice round. It was absolutely perfect weather-wise which is rare here."

The Buffs spent about a third of the round, if not a bit more, in first place but dueled with the Ducks most of the day. Colorado started in the middle holes on the back nine, thus those holes Edwards spoke of came late in the round, and the Buffs played them collectively at 10-over. However, no team came out unscathed – Oregon was plus-9 for example – as of the 270 scores posted on those three holes Sunday, there were just four birdies and 122 pars, with 122 bogeys and 22 holes of double bogey or worse. They would statistically be the toughest three holes in round one.

Junior Spencer Painton matched his low round of the season with a 3-under 69 on the 6,893-yard, par-72 Old MacDonald Course layout, tying him for sixth in the standings. He had a 32 on the front side and an eagle, four birdies and 10 pars for his round against three bogeys. The eagle came on the par-4 370-yard 14th hole, where he was about 80 yards from the pin when he made 2 with a lob wedge. He played the par-4 holes at 2-under, tied for best in the field.

Junior Yannik Paul scored a 2-under 70 to open here, tying him for 12th. He had a steady round of three birdies, 14 pars and one bogey (which came on No. 11). He was 1-under on each side and his 14 pars tied him for third-most in the field.

Senior Jeremy Paul, CU's stroke leader at 71.21, essentially shot his average with a 1-under 71, as he scored four birdies and 11 pars against three bogeys to stand tied for 18th. Unfortunately, he ended his day with two of those bogeys (on Nos. 11 and 12), but that almost always fires him up to shoot low in his next round.

Senior Ethan Freeman fashioned a 1-over 73 that has him tied for 37th; he had two birdies and 13 pars against three bogeys, the latter of which all came on the back nine.

Junior John Souza carded a 4-over 76 (tied for 64th) as he had an up-and-down round with three birdies, eight pars and seven bogeys. He actually shot a 33 on the front nine with two birds and seven of the pars, but was 6-over on the back nine.

Texas Tech's Hannes Ronneblad is the individual leader with a 7-under 65; he scored two eagles in his round, which started on No. 1. He shot a 29 on the front nine before cooling off a bit.

The second round is set for Monday with a shotgun start at 9:30 a.m.; the Buffaloes will be paired with the other leaders, Oregon, Texas Tech and Auburn, and will tee off on holes 1 through 4. The third and final round is scheduled for Tuesday.

NOTES: Colorado has finished in the top five in all eight tournaments this season, matching its previous best (in 1992-93 and 2013-14); the eight in a row is a school record so the Buffs are looking to add to that streak … This is Yannik Paul's last tournament before the selections are made this week for the members of the U.S.A. and European teams for June's Arnold Palmer Cup, in which Paul stands 15th on the European side. The top six automatically qualify and the remaining four are selected by the coaches (his older twin, Jeremy, plans to turn pro by the tournament and thus is not eligible). The average score in the field Sunday was a modest 73.5, as 28 players were under par and another eight equaled it; there were two scores of 80 in the 90-man field.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T 6.	Spencer Painton	32-37—69
T12.	Yannik Paul	34-36—70
T18.	Jeremy Paul	35-36—71
T37.	Ethan Freeman	33-40—73
T64.	John Souza	33-43—76

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1.	Hannes Ronneblad, Texas Tech	29-36—65
2.	Wyndham Clark, Oregon	31-35—66
3.	Petter Mikalsen, Denver	31-36—67
T4.	Derek Bayley, Washington St.	33-35—68
T4.	Cameron Champ, Texas A&M	33-35—68