Colorado University Athletics
Senior Ethan Freeman will lead the Buffalo charge in the Pac-12 Championships.
CU Set To Host Pac-12 Men's Golf Championships
April 27, 2017 | Men's Golf
Pac-12 Championships InfoPac-12 Championships ProgramCU Pac-12 Championships NotesWatch Live Link (7:30 AM Friday)Live Scoring (Golfstat)
No. 25 Buffaloes Take Aim At First League Title Since 1968
BOULDER — For the first time in 45 years, the University of Colorado men's golf team spent the night in their own beds prior to the practice round ahead of a conference championship.
That's because the Buffaloes are serving as host of the 58th Annual Pac-12 Championships this Friday through Sunday at Boulder Country Club – site of the last time Colorado played host to league title meet way back in 1972 when CU was a member of the Big 8 Conference.
The teams will begin play Friday with 36 holes, followed by 18 each on Saturday and Sunday. Boulder Country Club will have a 7,129-yard, par-70 configuration for the tournament, with the elevation at the club of 5,220 feet the highest for a men's championship in conference history (dating back to 1960; it tops the 4,800 feet last year at Salt Lake City).
"It's a challenging Press Maxwell designed course; it looks benign on the scorecard, but it has some challenges," Colorado head coach Roy Edwards said. "You have to play well to score well, you can't fake it. The thing I love about Boulder Country Club is that it tests every part of your game. You have to drive it well, approach shots have to be on point, and your short game needs to be at a high level. The course plays longer than the yardage on the card; if players play well, they can shoot low scores, but it's certainly not an easy golf course."
But the challenging course layout and altitude might be the least of the worries for the schools, as the forecast all week has held for rain turning into snow sometime Friday night with temperatures to drop into the upper 20s. It is supposed to clear for Sunday's final round; tournament officials have an assortment of possible changes should the weather wreak havoc on the golfers (a championship requires at least 36 holes to be played to be official).
Senior Ethan Freeman, juniors Spencer Painton, Yannik Paul and John Souza, sophomore Wilson Belk and freshman Victor Bjorlow will represent the Buffaloes on their home turf. The makeup is the same as a year ago, as the group has collectively played in a combined seven Pac-12 Championships while earning 10 letters coming into the season.
"It's been a really good season to date, we've certainly had a lot highs and relatively few lows," Edwards said. "When we've had the latter, the team has shown great resolve to bounce right back. This is the time of year that you can make it special, and it starts this week with the Pac-12 Championships. We showed steady improvement throughout the year, we've been consistent for the most part and we have a mature team. It's a byproduct of our players' efforts and results. We have had a lot of good head-to-head wins against some of the top teams in the country."
The Buffs will be without one of their top golfers all season, as senior Jeremy Paul opted to turn professional last week ahead of the Web.com's United Leasing Championship last week in Indiana. He had a sponsor's exception into the event, where he was looking good after opening with an even-par 72 but eventually missed the cut by two strokes.
"Jeremy determined turning pro at this time was in the best interest for his budding professional golf career," Edwards said. "We respect his decision. He has a tremendous future in front of him and we applaud him on a great CU career. He was a pleasure to coach and he has no bigger fans than his Colorado Golf family. But we have to look at this an opportunity for someone to step up and enjoy the once in a career chance to play the Pac-12 Championship on one of our home courses."
The Pac-12 has long instituted a 6-for 5 scoring format for its title meet, obviously a reward for those schools with greater depth and a challenge for those without it. Quite often, it's either the first or only the second such format teams see during the season; this will be the second time this season that the Buffs are competing in a 6-for-5.
"It (the 6-for-5) reveals the depth of your team," Edwards said. "In order to play well in the 'six count five,' it allows for the opportunity for a player to step up. In our case, with Jeremy turning professional, it's going to be an opportunity for two players to take advantage of, and it's a little extra special since we're the home team. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Colorado enters ranked at No. 25 by Golfweek and No. 33 by GolfStat (both out of 305 schools), along with receiving votes in the Bushnell/Coaches poll. The Buffaloes peaked at No. 18 in mid-March, their second-highest known ranking in history other than appearing at No. 14 in the coaches poll in the spring of 1981.
Freeman will become the 24th player in CU history (out of over 350) to play in four league championship meets, joining such past CU greats as Terry Kahl, Steve Jones, Rick Cramer, Bobby Kalinowski, Knut Ekjord, Matt Zions, Kane Webber, Edward McGlasson, Derek Tolan and the most recent— David Oraee and Philip Juel-Berg – in the last two years. Kalinowski is the last Buff to win a conference title, claiming Big 8 medalist honors in both 1993 and 1994.
Kahl and Kalinowski will serve as honorary starters Friday, as the coaches have brought CU's last two conference medalists in to celebrate the Buffaloes hosting the championships. Kahl captured the Big 8 crown in 1981.
Three Buffs – both Pauls and Freeman – all currently have stroke averages under 73 (actually all 72.1 or lower); last year marked the first time in CU golf history where three players finished the year under 73.0. Jeremy Paul is finished at 71.75; Freeman is at 71.94 and Yannik Paul at 72.10; if all were to wind up under 72, which would be another first. Only four players have ever finished a year under 72: Webber (71.46 in 2003-04), Tolan (71.90 in 2008-09), current assistant coach Patrick Grady (71.98 in 2008-09) and Jeremy Paul twice: 70.66 in 2015-16 and 71.75 this year).
With the Pac-12 historically rotating this event annually to school sites, the host school usually has some kind of inherent advantage.
"It's really exciting to host," Edwards noted. "We really feel like the Pac-12 has the best conference championship in college golf. The big reason for that is that the host sites rotate between the campuses. We're the only major conference with 72 holes that does it. I think any time you host, you should have an advantage, you deal with that as a disadvantage 11 other years, but you also strive to make it as great of a championship as you can for all the participants. It's hard to quantify how much of an advantage the home team has, there's definitely some, but we have a lot of confidence and strategy going in, so the other teams have to make it up in one day of preparation. But that's something we're all used to doing."
Stanford, ranked No. 5 by GolfStat (No. 7 by the coaches and No. 8 by Golfweek), is the three-time defending champion, with Southern California ranked No. 1 across all three rankings. The Buffs finished eighth in their inaugural Pac-12 appearance in 2012, and dipped to 10th in 2013, before claiming fourth in 2014, their best Pac-12 finish to date; the Buffs were 11th in 2015 and tied for sixth a year ago. Colorado's last league title was the 1968 Big 8 crown, when it hosted the meet at Lake Valley Golf Club in north Boulder.
NOTES: Colorado is 13-14-2 versus Pac-12 schools this year, 40-37-3 in rounds; the only school CU hasn't seen is Cal ... CU is 115-41-4 against Division I competition (102-27-2 outside of the Pac-12; 11-17-1 versus the top 25), clinching a better than .500 record and thus has met the first criteria for selection into the NCAA Regionals (May 15-17) ... Stanford may be the three-time defending champion, though seven different schools have won the title over the last 13 seasons; Oregon State, Washington State and the two 2012 newcomers, CU and Utah, are the only ones without a Pac-12 crown ... Opening pairings were by a random draw (sans the defending champ, which opens in the first groups on No. 1); Colorado is paired with Oregon and UCLA and will tee off on No. 1 from 8:36-9:31 a.m. MDT (Round 1) and from 1:51-2:46 p.m. (Round 2) ... The Pac-12 Network is covering the event and will debut a one-hour special on Sunday, May 7 at Noon MDT ... The NCAA Championship selections will be announced live on the Golf Channel on Thursday, May 4 beginning at 10 a.m. MDT (also streamed live on its website) ... USC will host the 2018 Pac-12 Championships next April 23-25 ... Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
FUN FACTS: As stated above, Colorado last hosted a conference championship in 1972 (early May). Here are some facts from the day:
That's because the Buffaloes are serving as host of the 58th Annual Pac-12 Championships this Friday through Sunday at Boulder Country Club – site of the last time Colorado played host to league title meet way back in 1972 when CU was a member of the Big 8 Conference.
The teams will begin play Friday with 36 holes, followed by 18 each on Saturday and Sunday. Boulder Country Club will have a 7,129-yard, par-70 configuration for the tournament, with the elevation at the club of 5,220 feet the highest for a men's championship in conference history (dating back to 1960; it tops the 4,800 feet last year at Salt Lake City).
"It's a challenging Press Maxwell designed course; it looks benign on the scorecard, but it has some challenges," Colorado head coach Roy Edwards said. "You have to play well to score well, you can't fake it. The thing I love about Boulder Country Club is that it tests every part of your game. You have to drive it well, approach shots have to be on point, and your short game needs to be at a high level. The course plays longer than the yardage on the card; if players play well, they can shoot low scores, but it's certainly not an easy golf course."
But the challenging course layout and altitude might be the least of the worries for the schools, as the forecast all week has held for rain turning into snow sometime Friday night with temperatures to drop into the upper 20s. It is supposed to clear for Sunday's final round; tournament officials have an assortment of possible changes should the weather wreak havoc on the golfers (a championship requires at least 36 holes to be played to be official).
Senior Ethan Freeman, juniors Spencer Painton, Yannik Paul and John Souza, sophomore Wilson Belk and freshman Victor Bjorlow will represent the Buffaloes on their home turf. The makeup is the same as a year ago, as the group has collectively played in a combined seven Pac-12 Championships while earning 10 letters coming into the season.
"It's been a really good season to date, we've certainly had a lot highs and relatively few lows," Edwards said. "When we've had the latter, the team has shown great resolve to bounce right back. This is the time of year that you can make it special, and it starts this week with the Pac-12 Championships. We showed steady improvement throughout the year, we've been consistent for the most part and we have a mature team. It's a byproduct of our players' efforts and results. We have had a lot of good head-to-head wins against some of the top teams in the country."
The Buffs will be without one of their top golfers all season, as senior Jeremy Paul opted to turn professional last week ahead of the Web.com's United Leasing Championship last week in Indiana. He had a sponsor's exception into the event, where he was looking good after opening with an even-par 72 but eventually missed the cut by two strokes.
"Jeremy determined turning pro at this time was in the best interest for his budding professional golf career," Edwards said. "We respect his decision. He has a tremendous future in front of him and we applaud him on a great CU career. He was a pleasure to coach and he has no bigger fans than his Colorado Golf family. But we have to look at this an opportunity for someone to step up and enjoy the once in a career chance to play the Pac-12 Championship on one of our home courses."
The Pac-12 has long instituted a 6-for 5 scoring format for its title meet, obviously a reward for those schools with greater depth and a challenge for those without it. Quite often, it's either the first or only the second such format teams see during the season; this will be the second time this season that the Buffs are competing in a 6-for-5.
"It (the 6-for-5) reveals the depth of your team," Edwards said. "In order to play well in the 'six count five,' it allows for the opportunity for a player to step up. In our case, with Jeremy turning professional, it's going to be an opportunity for two players to take advantage of, and it's a little extra special since we're the home team. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Colorado enters ranked at No. 25 by Golfweek and No. 33 by GolfStat (both out of 305 schools), along with receiving votes in the Bushnell/Coaches poll. The Buffaloes peaked at No. 18 in mid-March, their second-highest known ranking in history other than appearing at No. 14 in the coaches poll in the spring of 1981.
Freeman will become the 24th player in CU history (out of over 350) to play in four league championship meets, joining such past CU greats as Terry Kahl, Steve Jones, Rick Cramer, Bobby Kalinowski, Knut Ekjord, Matt Zions, Kane Webber, Edward McGlasson, Derek Tolan and the most recent— David Oraee and Philip Juel-Berg – in the last two years. Kalinowski is the last Buff to win a conference title, claiming Big 8 medalist honors in both 1993 and 1994.
Kahl and Kalinowski will serve as honorary starters Friday, as the coaches have brought CU's last two conference medalists in to celebrate the Buffaloes hosting the championships. Kahl captured the Big 8 crown in 1981.
Three Buffs – both Pauls and Freeman – all currently have stroke averages under 73 (actually all 72.1 or lower); last year marked the first time in CU golf history where three players finished the year under 73.0. Jeremy Paul is finished at 71.75; Freeman is at 71.94 and Yannik Paul at 72.10; if all were to wind up under 72, which would be another first. Only four players have ever finished a year under 72: Webber (71.46 in 2003-04), Tolan (71.90 in 2008-09), current assistant coach Patrick Grady (71.98 in 2008-09) and Jeremy Paul twice: 70.66 in 2015-16 and 71.75 this year).
With the Pac-12 historically rotating this event annually to school sites, the host school usually has some kind of inherent advantage.
"It's really exciting to host," Edwards noted. "We really feel like the Pac-12 has the best conference championship in college golf. The big reason for that is that the host sites rotate between the campuses. We're the only major conference with 72 holes that does it. I think any time you host, you should have an advantage, you deal with that as a disadvantage 11 other years, but you also strive to make it as great of a championship as you can for all the participants. It's hard to quantify how much of an advantage the home team has, there's definitely some, but we have a lot of confidence and strategy going in, so the other teams have to make it up in one day of preparation. But that's something we're all used to doing."
Stanford, ranked No. 5 by GolfStat (No. 7 by the coaches and No. 8 by Golfweek), is the three-time defending champion, with Southern California ranked No. 1 across all three rankings. The Buffs finished eighth in their inaugural Pac-12 appearance in 2012, and dipped to 10th in 2013, before claiming fourth in 2014, their best Pac-12 finish to date; the Buffs were 11th in 2015 and tied for sixth a year ago. Colorado's last league title was the 1968 Big 8 crown, when it hosted the meet at Lake Valley Golf Club in north Boulder.
NOTES: Colorado is 13-14-2 versus Pac-12 schools this year, 40-37-3 in rounds; the only school CU hasn't seen is Cal ... CU is 115-41-4 against Division I competition (102-27-2 outside of the Pac-12; 11-17-1 versus the top 25), clinching a better than .500 record and thus has met the first criteria for selection into the NCAA Regionals (May 15-17) ... Stanford may be the three-time defending champion, though seven different schools have won the title over the last 13 seasons; Oregon State, Washington State and the two 2012 newcomers, CU and Utah, are the only ones without a Pac-12 crown ... Opening pairings were by a random draw (sans the defending champ, which opens in the first groups on No. 1); Colorado is paired with Oregon and UCLA and will tee off on No. 1 from 8:36-9:31 a.m. MDT (Round 1) and from 1:51-2:46 p.m. (Round 2) ... The Pac-12 Network is covering the event and will debut a one-hour special on Sunday, May 7 at Noon MDT ... The NCAA Championship selections will be announced live on the Golf Channel on Thursday, May 4 beginning at 10 a.m. MDT (also streamed live on its website) ... USC will host the 2018 Pac-12 Championships next April 23-25 ... Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
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