Colorado University Athletics
Sunday, September 10
USAFA, CO
All Day
Colorado
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Third Round
Spencer Painton's career-best 66 Sunday helped the Buffaloes turn in the second-best final round team score.
Photo by: Chip Bromfield, ProMotion Ltd.
Golfers Post Solid Final Round, Finish Third In AFA-Miranda Invitational
September 10, 2017 | Men's Golf
Paul, O'Loughlin Earn Top Five Finishes
USAFA, Colo. — The University of Colorado men's golf team closed here Sunday with a solid final round but couldn't make up any ground in the standings as the Buffaloes finished third in the 49th Annual Gene Miranda-Air Force Falcon Invitational.
Wyoming held off Colorado State and the Buffs in winning the event with a 29-under par 835 team score; the Cowboys shot a 7-under 281 Sunday to keep the challengers at an arm's length. CSU finished five strokes back at 840, with CU next with a 21-under 843 score after posting Sunday's second best effort, a 10-under 278, which was also the fourth best single round score over the three-day event.
UNLV finished fourth at 851, as the No. 14-ranked Rebels used the best team score in the final round (13-under 275) to catapult four spots in the standings from eighth place, with Utah rounding out the top five (852).
As for Colorado, it was the third-lowest score in the first major tournament of a season in school history. The Buffs were 24-under par in the 2011 Mark Simpson-CU Invitational and 22-under two years ago in this same Air Force meet.
"I'm pretty satisfied with the way we played," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "Obviously we wanted to win, and we're disappointed that we didn't, but we did accomplish many good things this week. Our round today was pretty good, second lowest in the field. Golf at many of the schools along the (Rocky Mountain) front range is probably as good as it has ever been. There are a lot of quality teams, so we would have had to play really well this week but came up a little bit short. From what I saw here, we do have a lot to build on."
Senior Yannik Paul opened up his fourth and final season as a Buffalo by leading the effort with an 8-under 208 performance on Air Force's 7,511-yard, par-72 Eisenhower Blue Golf Course; he tied for third individually in the process. It was his 14th tournament where he finished under par, and with all three rounds here under par as well including a 2-under 70 Sunday, he upped his total to 42 career subpar rounds. He was second in par-3 scoring (minus-2) and fourth in par-4 scoring (4-under) for the weekend, as he had 13 birdies and 36 pars (11 straight to close the meet) with only five bogeys.
Sophomore Daniel O'Loughlin also recorded three subpar rounds with a 2-under 70 in the final round to finish at 7-under 209, tying for fifth. He had the second most birdies by a Buff here with 14 and had 33 pars and just seven bogeys in his CU debut. A transfer from McNeese State, where he was the freshman of the year in the Southland Conference, O'Loughlin matched his career-best finish in a tournament (twice done last fall), with his 7-under effort for 54 holes a collegiate best.
Sophomore Ross Macdonald tied for 17th after he closed with an even-par 72 to finish up a 3-under 213. He scored a team-best 15 birdies (tied for third-most in the tourney) and scored 29 pars on the weekend, and led the 111-man field in par-3 scoring, playing the dozen collectively at 3-under par.
Senior Spencer Painton, who was CU's No. 1 player out of qualifying but had some minor struggles in the first two rounds, closed here with a vengeance as he recorded his collegiate career best round of 6-under 66. He had an eagle, five birdies and 11 pars with only one bogey as he rallied to finish with a 2-under 214 total and tie for 21st overall.
Colorado was joined by Colorado State and UNLV as the only three teams to have four finishers in the top 25.
Senior John Souza rounded out the Buff designated scorers, fashioning an even-par 72 to tie for 46th with a 3-over 219; he finished up with two birdies and 14 pars Sunday, and his two eagles in Friday's first round held up to lead the field.
Freshman Trevor Olkowski tied for 29th after he wrapped things up with a 2-under 70; that enabled him to complete his first collegiate event with an even-par 216 for 54 holes. He had 12 birdies and 32 pars against eight bogeys and two doubles to begin his career, with five of those birdies coming on his final 11 holes Sunday. That rally enabled him to record CU's third best performance for a golfer playing in his first collegiate tournament, with the second-best score in relation to par. In the 1990 Wyoming Invitational, Jonathan Kaye shot a 76-72-65—213, the low gross score but 3-over on a par-70 course; in the 2008 DU-Ron Moore Invitational, Sebastian Heisele turned in a 2-under 67-73-74--214.
CU's other true freshman, Cole Krantz, also closed with an even-par effort and tied for 50th with a 4-over 220 total. Undaunted by the challenges of Eisenhower's layout, he had six birdies and a team-high 38 pars, the latter tying for the fourth-most in the field. He never scored worse than a bogey on any hole, which Edwards noted was a significant achievement for someone playing his first college tournament on this course.
Sophomore Victor Bjorlow could never really get untracked here, firing a final round 4-over 76 for a 225 score (plus-9), tying him for 79th. He did record seven birdies and 32 pars, but a team-high 14 birdies (and one double) had him a little off his usual game.
"Yannik had a really nice tournament, and Daniel played solid considering it was his first time playing Eisenhower here at Air Force, which can pose challenges for those who have never played it before," Edwards said. "Spencer came back with a great effort and Ross played solid all week. And we also saw some good things from the freshmen in their first tournament, especially today from Trevor. He was 3-over after three holes but persevered, and it paid off as he rallied to finish 2-under."
Wyoming's John Murdock claimed medalist honors, pulling away from the field in the final round as a 2-under 70 enabled him to finish at 14-under 202. Colorado State's Max Oelfke was the runner-up, some five strokes back at 9-under 207.
The Buffaloes will return to action with two tournaments in a five-day span, when Colorado will travel to Albuquerque for New Mexico's William H. Tucker Invitational (Sept. 22-23), and then return home for its own Mark Simpson-CU Invitational at Colorado National Golf Club (Sept. 25-26).
NOTES: The average score in the field was 73.59, with it at 73.33 for Sunday's final round … The Buffs led the field in par three scoring (5-under), the only school to play the "short" ones under par; CU had led the field in par-4 scoring as well after the first two rounds, and even though the Buffs played them 3-under Sunday, they finished third playing them even … Colorado edged Wyoming in scoring the most birdies by the five designated scorers, 60-59, and had 85 overall … Colorado has won this event meet six times, last doing so in 2012, and now has five runner-up and five third-place efforts.
(*—competed as an individual.)
TEAM STANDINGS
Wyoming held off Colorado State and the Buffs in winning the event with a 29-under par 835 team score; the Cowboys shot a 7-under 281 Sunday to keep the challengers at an arm's length. CSU finished five strokes back at 840, with CU next with a 21-under 843 score after posting Sunday's second best effort, a 10-under 278, which was also the fourth best single round score over the three-day event.
UNLV finished fourth at 851, as the No. 14-ranked Rebels used the best team score in the final round (13-under 275) to catapult four spots in the standings from eighth place, with Utah rounding out the top five (852).
As for Colorado, it was the third-lowest score in the first major tournament of a season in school history. The Buffs were 24-under par in the 2011 Mark Simpson-CU Invitational and 22-under two years ago in this same Air Force meet.
"I'm pretty satisfied with the way we played," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "Obviously we wanted to win, and we're disappointed that we didn't, but we did accomplish many good things this week. Our round today was pretty good, second lowest in the field. Golf at many of the schools along the (Rocky Mountain) front range is probably as good as it has ever been. There are a lot of quality teams, so we would have had to play really well this week but came up a little bit short. From what I saw here, we do have a lot to build on."
Senior Yannik Paul opened up his fourth and final season as a Buffalo by leading the effort with an 8-under 208 performance on Air Force's 7,511-yard, par-72 Eisenhower Blue Golf Course; he tied for third individually in the process. It was his 14th tournament where he finished under par, and with all three rounds here under par as well including a 2-under 70 Sunday, he upped his total to 42 career subpar rounds. He was second in par-3 scoring (minus-2) and fourth in par-4 scoring (4-under) for the weekend, as he had 13 birdies and 36 pars (11 straight to close the meet) with only five bogeys.
Sophomore Daniel O'Loughlin also recorded three subpar rounds with a 2-under 70 in the final round to finish at 7-under 209, tying for fifth. He had the second most birdies by a Buff here with 14 and had 33 pars and just seven bogeys in his CU debut. A transfer from McNeese State, where he was the freshman of the year in the Southland Conference, O'Loughlin matched his career-best finish in a tournament (twice done last fall), with his 7-under effort for 54 holes a collegiate best.
Sophomore Ross Macdonald tied for 17th after he closed with an even-par 72 to finish up a 3-under 213. He scored a team-best 15 birdies (tied for third-most in the tourney) and scored 29 pars on the weekend, and led the 111-man field in par-3 scoring, playing the dozen collectively at 3-under par.
Senior Spencer Painton, who was CU's No. 1 player out of qualifying but had some minor struggles in the first two rounds, closed here with a vengeance as he recorded his collegiate career best round of 6-under 66. He had an eagle, five birdies and 11 pars with only one bogey as he rallied to finish with a 2-under 214 total and tie for 21st overall.
Colorado was joined by Colorado State and UNLV as the only three teams to have four finishers in the top 25.
Senior John Souza rounded out the Buff designated scorers, fashioning an even-par 72 to tie for 46th with a 3-over 219; he finished up with two birdies and 14 pars Sunday, and his two eagles in Friday's first round held up to lead the field.
Freshman Trevor Olkowski tied for 29th after he wrapped things up with a 2-under 70; that enabled him to complete his first collegiate event with an even-par 216 for 54 holes. He had 12 birdies and 32 pars against eight bogeys and two doubles to begin his career, with five of those birdies coming on his final 11 holes Sunday. That rally enabled him to record CU's third best performance for a golfer playing in his first collegiate tournament, with the second-best score in relation to par. In the 1990 Wyoming Invitational, Jonathan Kaye shot a 76-72-65—213, the low gross score but 3-over on a par-70 course; in the 2008 DU-Ron Moore Invitational, Sebastian Heisele turned in a 2-under 67-73-74--214.
CU's other true freshman, Cole Krantz, also closed with an even-par effort and tied for 50th with a 4-over 220 total. Undaunted by the challenges of Eisenhower's layout, he had six birdies and a team-high 38 pars, the latter tying for the fourth-most in the field. He never scored worse than a bogey on any hole, which Edwards noted was a significant achievement for someone playing his first college tournament on this course.
Sophomore Victor Bjorlow could never really get untracked here, firing a final round 4-over 76 for a 225 score (plus-9), tying him for 79th. He did record seven birdies and 32 pars, but a team-high 14 birdies (and one double) had him a little off his usual game.
"Yannik had a really nice tournament, and Daniel played solid considering it was his first time playing Eisenhower here at Air Force, which can pose challenges for those who have never played it before," Edwards said. "Spencer came back with a great effort and Ross played solid all week. And we also saw some good things from the freshmen in their first tournament, especially today from Trevor. He was 3-over after three holes but persevered, and it paid off as he rallied to finish 2-under."
Wyoming's John Murdock claimed medalist honors, pulling away from the field in the final round as a 2-under 70 enabled him to finish at 14-under 202. Colorado State's Max Oelfke was the runner-up, some five strokes back at 9-under 207.
The Buffaloes will return to action with two tournaments in a five-day span, when Colorado will travel to Albuquerque for New Mexico's William H. Tucker Invitational (Sept. 22-23), and then return home for its own Mark Simpson-CU Invitational at Colorado National Golf Club (Sept. 25-26).
NOTES: The average score in the field was 73.59, with it at 73.33 for Sunday's final round … The Buffs led the field in par three scoring (5-under), the only school to play the "short" ones under par; CU had led the field in par-4 scoring as well after the first two rounds, and even though the Buffs played them 3-under Sunday, they finished third playing them even … Colorado edged Wyoming in scoring the most birdies by the five designated scorers, 60-59, and had 85 overall … Colorado has won this event meet six times, last doing so in 2012, and now has five runner-up and five third-place efforts.
| BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
| T3. | Yannik Paul | 67-71-70—208 |
| T5. | Daniel O'Loughlin | 70-69-70—209 |
| T17. | Ross Macdonald | 73-68-72—213 |
| T21. | Spencer Painton | 74-74-66—214 |
| T29. | *Trevor Olkowski | 72-74-70—216 |
| T46. | John Souza | 74-73-72—219 |
| T50. | *Cole Krantz | 74-74-72—220 |
| T79. | *Victor Bjorlow | 75-74-76—225 |
| INDIVIDUAL LEADERS |
| 1. | John Murdock, Wyoming | 67-65-70—202 |
| 2. | Max Oelfke, Colorado State | 68-70-69—207 |
| T3. | Yannik Paul, Colorado | 67-71-70—208 |
| T3. | Drew McCullough, Wyoming | 70-66-72—208 |
| T5. | Daniel O'Loughlin, Colorado | 70-69-70—209 |
| T5. | Jack Trent, UNLV | 73-70-66—209 |
TEAM STANDINGS
| 1. | Wyoming | 284-270-281—835 |
| 2. | Colorado State | 282-275-283—840 |
| 3. | COLORADO | 284-281-278—843 |
| 4. | UNLV | 286-289-275—851 |
| 5. | Utah | 292-279-281—852 |
| 6. | Texas-El Paso | 285-285-284—854 |
| 7. | Northern Colorado | 287-281-295—863 |
| 8. | New Mexico State | 289-283-294—866 |
| 9. | Air Force | 290-290-290—870 |
| 10. | Abilene Christian | 293-295-287—875 |
| 11. | Drake | 297-291-289—877 |
| 12. | George Washington | 306-283-289—878 |
| 13. | Texas State | 295-296-288—879 |
| 14. | Utah Valley State | 292-291-299—882 |
| 15. | Weber State | 291-296-297—884 |
| 16. | Utah State | 292-300-293—885 |
| 17. | Northern Iowa | 294-298-300—892 |
| T18. | Southern Utah | 304-295-296—894 |
| T18. | SIU-Edwardsville | 301-303-290—894 |
Players Mentioned
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