Colorado University Athletics
Sunday, April 30
Boulder, Colo.
11:00 AM
Colorado
vs
Pac-12 Championships
Ethan Freeman and head coach Roy Edwards plot some strategy Sunday.
Photo by: Cliff Grassmick
Golfers Finish Seventh In Pac-12 Championships
April 30, 2017 | Men's Golf
Buffs Disappointed With Finish On Home Course
BOULDER — The University of Colorado men's golf team finished seventh here Sunday in the 58th annual Pac-12 Championships, the first time the Buffaloes played host for a conference title affair since 1972.
No. 7 Oregon led from wire-to-wire but had to withstand a final round charge from No. 4 Stanford. The Ducks entered the final round with a nine shot lead over No. 31 Washington, with the three-time defending champion Cardinal lurking 11 shots back. But it would soon turn into a two-way race between the Ducks and the Cardinal, as Stanford would score the low round of the tourney (an 8-under 342) and pulled to within one shot with roughly six holes to go. But Oregon stood its ground and its scorers played the last five holes at 2-over to finish with a 15-over 1,065 team total while the Cardinal played those at 4-over to finish three back at 1,068.
No. 1 Southern California and No. 31 Washington tied for third with 1,082 totals, with UCLA rounding out the top five at 1,088.
In Sunday's final round, the Buffs had it 4-under par early and climbed into a tie for fourth, albeit briefly; but a rash of bogeys dropped CU to 1-over and in seventh a third of the way into play. Colorado bounced around between fifth and eighth the rest of the day and eventually settled for seventh with a 1,092 score; the Buffs were tied for eighth after the first round and in sixth after two rounds.
The weather wreaked havoc for much of the event, with delays of over an hour on Friday eventually causing play to be suspended with 12 players short of finishing their second rounds. Then on Saturday after overnight snowfall, play was cancelled altogether, forcing completion of the second round on Sunday, and at 11:30 a.m.; the 72-hole event was then shortened to 54 holes and the teams playing the third round in a shotgun format.
Senior Ethan Freeman tied for 20th in leading the Buffaloes throughout most of the weekend, closing with a 74 for an 8-over 218 total on the 7,129-yard, par-70 Boulder Country Club course layout. One of the dozen players who needed to finish second round action, he got off to a sour start by bogeying both holes to shoot a 2-over-72. But he bounced back to be even through 12 holes in his third round before scoring four bogeys down the stretch. He had just one birdie, 12 pars and seven bogeys for his 20 holes Sunday.
Junior Spencer Painton fired a 3-over 73 to end with an 8-over 218 score, tying him for 20th as well. He was steady all three rounds as he finished with five birdies and 38 pars against nine bogeys and two doubles. His 38 pars were the fifth-most in the 72-man field, and he played the par-4 holes (36 collectively) at 1-over, tying four fourth-best against his peers. In addition, his 11 holes of bogey or higher (nine single, two doubles) was also a team low.
"I wouldn't say it was hard to get into a rhythm, the hardest part was getting over the waiting," Painton said of the delays over the final two days. "Knowing that you put in a lot of work and having to trust it when the time comes. We've seen these conditions, we just haven't seen this kind of rough. The golf course played a lot softer today, but other than that, it played exactly how I expected."
Junior Yannik Paul tied for 31st with a 10-over 220 total after wrapping things up with a 3-over 73. Starting on No. 11, he opened with a par, bogey and triple bogey and thus was 4-over after three holes, but battled back to birdie four of his next seven holes to get back to even and then moved to 1-under before closing with four bogeys over his last holes.
Junior John Souza recorded one of CU's two best scores of the final round, carding an even-par 70 that allowed him to finish with a 10-over 220, also tying him for 31st. He had a team-high six birdies Sunday to go with seven pars against four bogeys and a double. He birdied three of his first five holes and was 2-under early, eventually working it to 3-under before enduring some troubles down the stretch, including the double bogey on his next-to-last hole; he did bounce back to birdie the par-3 11th to get back to even for the day. He led the Buffs in birdies overall with 10, tying for fourth-most in the field.
"It was a little different having a delay break between rounds in the tournament," Souza said. "The rhythm with my swing was a little off today, but luckily I was able to keep myself on the right side of the hole and make a couple of putts and was able to score a good round for the team. Just happy to get his round in for the championship, but on the whole, it was definitely a different experience."No. 7 Oregon led from wire-to-wire but had to withstand a final round charge from No. 4 Stanford. The Ducks entered the final round with a nine shot lead over No. 31 Washington, with the three-time defending champion Cardinal lurking 11 shots back. But it would soon turn into a two-way race between the Ducks and the Cardinal, as Stanford would score the low round of the tourney (an 8-under 342) and pulled to within one shot with roughly six holes to go. But Oregon stood its ground and its scorers played the last five holes at 2-over to finish with a 15-over 1,065 team total while the Cardinal played those at 4-over to finish three back at 1,068.
No. 1 Southern California and No. 31 Washington tied for third with 1,082 totals, with UCLA rounding out the top five at 1,088.
In Sunday's final round, the Buffs had it 4-under par early and climbed into a tie for fourth, albeit briefly; but a rash of bogeys dropped CU to 1-over and in seventh a third of the way into play. Colorado bounced around between fifth and eighth the rest of the day and eventually settled for seventh with a 1,092 score; the Buffs were tied for eighth after the first round and in sixth after two rounds.
The weather wreaked havoc for much of the event, with delays of over an hour on Friday eventually causing play to be suspended with 12 players short of finishing their second rounds. Then on Saturday after overnight snowfall, play was cancelled altogether, forcing completion of the second round on Sunday, and at 11:30 a.m.; the 72-hole event was then shortened to 54 holes and the teams playing the third round in a shotgun format.
Senior Ethan Freeman tied for 20th in leading the Buffaloes throughout most of the weekend, closing with a 74 for an 8-over 218 total on the 7,129-yard, par-70 Boulder Country Club course layout. One of the dozen players who needed to finish second round action, he got off to a sour start by bogeying both holes to shoot a 2-over-72. But he bounced back to be even through 12 holes in his third round before scoring four bogeys down the stretch. He had just one birdie, 12 pars and seven bogeys for his 20 holes Sunday.
Junior Spencer Painton fired a 3-over 73 to end with an 8-over 218 score, tying him for 20th as well. He was steady all three rounds as he finished with five birdies and 38 pars against nine bogeys and two doubles. His 38 pars were the fifth-most in the 72-man field, and he played the par-4 holes (36 collectively) at 1-over, tying four fourth-best against his peers. In addition, his 11 holes of bogey or higher (nine single, two doubles) was also a team low.
"I wouldn't say it was hard to get into a rhythm, the hardest part was getting over the waiting," Painton said of the delays over the final two days. "Knowing that you put in a lot of work and having to trust it when the time comes. We've seen these conditions, we just haven't seen this kind of rough. The golf course played a lot softer today, but other than that, it played exactly how I expected."
Junior Yannik Paul tied for 31st with a 10-over 220 total after wrapping things up with a 3-over 73. Starting on No. 11, he opened with a par, bogey and triple bogey and thus was 4-over after three holes, but battled back to birdie four of his next seven holes to get back to even and then moved to 1-under before closing with four bogeys over his last holes.
Junior John Souza recorded one of CU's two best scores of the final round, carding an even-par 70 that allowed him to finish with a 10-over 220, also tying him for 31st. He had a team-high six birdies Sunday to go with seven pars against four bogeys and a double. He birdied three of his first five holes and was 2-under early, eventually working it to 3-under before enduring some troubles down the stretch, including the double bogey on his next-to-last hole; he did bounce back to birdie the par-3 11th to get back to even for the day. He led the Buffs in birdies overall with 10, tying for fourth-most in the field.
Freshman Victor Bjorlow turned in his best effort of the tournament, carding an even-par 70 to finish with a 13-over 223, tying him for 40th. He spent the entire round within one stroke of par as he recorded three birdies and 12 pars against just three bogeys, avoiding the big numbers he had his first rounds. He finished 11th out of the 20 freshmen that competed in the event, and his 70 matched his collegiate best gross score.
Sophomore Wilson Belk tied for 52nd as he closed with a 4-over 74; he opened and closed his day with his two birdies, otherwise had 11 pars, four bogeys and a double. He played the par-5s this weekend at 3-under, tying for 10th-best in the field.
Only three schools had their sixth player finish above where Belk did, Oregon (tie-35th) and Stanford and UCLA (both tying for 47th).
"We're disappointed obviously finishing in seventh, but at the same time, we were close to finishing as high as fourth or fifth," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "We had much higher expectations coming in, and while the score doesn't necessarily tell the whole story, regardless, at the same time we were still seventh. I saw a lot of good things out of everybody this week. Victor's and John's rounds today were very good, and Spencer had a real nice tournament.
"I know Ethan was disappointed with his overall finish, but he played really well on Friday," Edwards added. "Yannik did a great job of fighting back into the round today after a tough start and he, too, had a really good round on Friday. And Wilson battled like he always does; his 74 helped us today. Even though we didn't finish where we wanted to, I am very proud to coach this team and we showed tremendous fight.
Asked if he thought there was a little extra pressure on his team being the host school, along with dealing with the challenges the weather provided, Edwards didn't believe those were significant reasons for his team finishing seventh.
"I thought at times we played a little tight, which isn't unexpected," he said. "But we moved on from that pretty well. We just didn't have anybody catch fire and put up a low number. If we had had just one player play really well, it would have changed everything."
With Colorado's low score being a pair of 8-over 218s, four schools had three players post better scores with three others having at least two do so.
Oregon senior Wyndham Clark claimed medalist honors, as he turned in a 69-68-69—206 scorecard, the only player in the field to record three subpar rounds. He bested USC's Rico Hoey and Stanford's Franklin Huang by three strokes. The low rounds of the tournament were also shot on Sunday, as Stanford's Maverick McNealy and Washington's Carl Yuan each closed with 5-under 65s.
Colorado long ago clinched one of the 87 team berths into the NCAA Championship regional field, and will find out this Thursday morning which one of the six sites it will travel to for the competition scheduled May 15-17. Host sites are Murfreesboro, Tenn.; West Lafayette, Ind.; Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, La.; Palo Alto, Calif.; and Auburn, Wash.
"Every team has highs and lows during the season, and I do feel like we're coming out of a low," Edwards said. "I've seen lots of good things going on, and we need to put it together for regionals. Our focus should be on two things, one, our academics going into finals and practicing and improving our golf games. There's no doubt this team is capable of advancing to the finals and we're looking forward to the opportunity to do so."
NOTES: Oregon won its first outright Pac-12 title; the Ducks won championships in 1976 and 1977 when the league was split into two four-team divisions (North and South) … The Pac-12 has played a 72-hole tournament since 1990; this marked the first time that the event had to be shortened to 54 holes due to weather complications … This was also the highest elevation a Pac-12 meet has ever been contested (5,220 feet) … In six Pac-12 meets since joining the conference in the 2011-12 school year, the Buffs have finished fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 10th and 11th … Colorado is now 18-20-2 versus Pac-12 schools this year, 55-54-4 in rounds; CU is now 120-47-4 against all Division I competition (102-27-2 outside of the Pac-12; 11-20-1 versus the top 25) … The average score for the 216 individual rounds in the tournament was 73.74 (74.07 for the first round, 74.68 for the second and 72.46 for the third) … There was one hole-in-one: Utah's Nathan Wunderli aced the 204-yard, par-3 6th hole in the second round … USC's Sean Crocker, the third-ranked player in the nation, scored a 10 on the par-4 9th hole, his third hole of the day; how did he handle it? While many would have thrown in the towel, he played the remaining 15 holes at 4-over for an 80 … There was a three-way tie for the top freshman performer, all at 6-over 216 (ASU's Chan An Yu, Oregon's Norman Xiong and Washington's Henry Lee) … Had this been the traditional 5-score-4 format, Oregon and Stanford would have tied for first with an 843; USC would have been solo in third (855) with Washington fourth (858), ASU fifth (864), UCLA sixth (867), CU eighth (868) and Cal ninth (871).
| BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
| T20. | Ethan Freeman | 72-72-74—218 |
| T20. | Spencer Painton | 73-72-73—218 |
| T31. | Yannik Paul | 71-76-73—220 |
| T31. | John Souza | 75-75-70—220 |
| T40. | Victor Bjorlow | 77-76-70—223 |
| T52. | Wilson Belk | 79-72-74—225 |
| TEAM STANDINGS |
| 1. | Oregon | 354-361-350—1065 (+15) |
| 2. | Stanford | 363-363-342—1068 (+18) |
| T3. | Washington | 355-369-358—1082 (+32) |
| T3. | Southern California | 366 365-351—1082 (+32) |
| 5. | UCLA | 363-372-353—1088 (+38) |
| 6. | Arizona State | 362-374-356—1092 (+42) |
| 7. | COLORADO | 368-367-360—1095 (+45) |
| 8. | California | 367-364-365—1096 (+46) |
| 9. | Arizona | 368-373-366—1107 (+57) |
| 10. | Washington State | 373-374-366—1113 (+63) |
| 11. | Oregon State | 376-376-367—1119 (+69) |
| 12. | Utah | 379-377-366—1122 (+72) |
| INDIVIDUAL LEADERS |
| 1. | Wyndham Clark, Oregon | 69-68-69—206 |
| T2. | Rico Hoey, Southern California | 72-68-69—209 |
| T2. | Franklin Huang, Stanford | 72-69-68—209 |
| T4. | Maverick McNealy, Stanford | 71-77-65—213 |
| T4. | Carl Yuan, Washington | 68-72-73—213 |
| T6. | Ryan Gronland, Oregon | 70-76-68—214 |
| T6. | Corey Pereira, Washington | 69-75-70—214 |
| T6. | Collin Morikawa, California | 74-68-72—214 |
| T9. | Tyler Collier, UCLA | 70-75-70—215 |
| T9. | Cole Madey, UCLA | 72-73-70—215 |
| T9. | Justin Suh, Southern California | 72-78-65—215 |
| T9. | Brandon Wu, Stanford | 76-71-68—215 |
| T9. | Isaiah Salinda, Stanford | 75-73-67—215 |
| T14. | Norman Xiong, Oregon | 72-75-69—216 |
| T14. | Henry Lee, Washington | 74-70-72—216 |
| T14. | Chun An Yu, Arizona State | 71-75-70—216 |
| T17. | Jared du Toit, Arizona State | 70-74-73—217 |
| T17. | Corey Shaun, UCLA | 73-75-69—217 |
| T17. | Walker Huddy, California | 72-74-71—217 |
| T20. | Ethan Freeman, Colorado | 72-72-74—218 |
| T20. | Spencer Painton, Colorado | 73-72-73—218 |
| T20. | Frank Garber, Washington | 72-74-72—218 |
| T20. | Blake Wagoner, Arizona State | 77-68-73—218 |
| T20. | David Laskin, Arizona | 72-74-72—218 |
| T20. | Brad Reeves, Arizona | 72-73-73—218 |
| T26. | Edwin Yi, Oregon | 70-74-75—219 |
| T26. | Cheng Jin, Southern California | 75-73-71—219 |
| T26. | Daniel Kolar, Washington State | 75-72-72—219 |
| T26. | Sulman Raza, Oregon | 79-70-70—219 |
| T26. | Brian Mogg, Washington State | 75-74-70—219 |
| T31. | Yannik Paul, Colorado | 71-76-73—220 |
| T31. | John Souza, Colorado | 75-75-70—220 |
| T31. | Bradley Knox, Stanford | 70-76-74—220 |
| T31. | Kyosuka Hara, Oregon State | 74-72-74—220 |
| T35. | Kevin Geniza, Oregon | 73-74-74—221 |
| T35. | Jonah Texeira, Southern California | 74-72-75—221 |
| T37. | Phil Delisi, UCLA | 76-74-72—222 |
| T37. | Jonas Liebich, Oregon State | 78-73-71—222 |
| T37. | Gentry Hicks, Utah | 80-73-69—222 |
| T40. | Victor Bjorlow, Colorado | 77-76-70—223 |
| T40. | Jordan Gumberg, Arizona | 71-78-74—223 |
| T40. | Tanner Hughes, California | 75-75-73—223 |
| T40. | Sean Yu, California | 73-75-75—223 |
| T40. | Nick Mandell, Washington State | 77-78-68—223 |
| T40. | Patrick Murphy, UCLA | 74-75-74—223 |
| T40. | Ethan Marcus, Arizona | 77-73-73—223 |
| T47. | Hidetoshi Yoshihara, UCLA | 74-78-72—224 |
| T47. | Peyton Hastings, Utah | 74-77-73—224 |
| T47. | Viraat Badhwar, Stanford | 75-74-75—224 |
| T47. | Tobias Eden, Arizona State | 73-80-71—224 |
| T47. | Finigan Tilly, California | 73-73-78—224 |
| T52. | Zach Anderson, Washington State | 72-76-77—225 |
| T52. | George Cunningham, Arizona | 76-75-74—225 |
| T52. | Wilson Belk, Colorado | 79-72-74—225 |
| T52. | Jino Sohn, Arizona State | 73-77-75—225 |
| T52. | Alex Del Rey Gonzalez, Arizona State | 75-81-69—225 |
| T57. | Mitchell Schow, Utah | 79-74-73—226 |
| T57. | William Aldred, California | 78-74-74—226 |
| T57. | Andrew Levitt, Southern California | 78-77-71—226 |
| 60. | Daniel List, Washington | 72-81-74—227 |
| T61. | Jordan Costello, Utah | 75-77-76—228 |
| T61. | Shawn Lu, Oregon State | 72-82-74—228 |
| T61. | Nathan Wunderli, Utah | 77-76-75—228 |
| T61. | Trevor Yu, Oregon State | 77-74-77—228 |
| T61. | Kevin Murphy, Oregon State | 75-78-75—228 |
| T61. | Kevin Kwon, Washington | 79-78-71—228 |
| T61. | Sean Crocker, Southern California | 73-75-80—228 |
| T68. | Derek Bayley, Washington State | 77-76-79—232 |
| T68. | Calum Hill, Oregon State | 80-79-73—232 |
| T68. | Grant Cole, Washington State | 74-76-82—232 |
| 71. | Kyler Dunkle, Utah | 74-81-78—233 |
| 72. | Dylan Stein, Arizona | 80-79-75—234 |
Players Mentioned
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