Colorado University Athletics
Tuesday, March 13
San Diego, CA
All Day
Colorado
vs
Third Round
Yannik Paul led CU in San Diego with a 3-over 219, tying for 32nd place.
Buff Golfers Finish Eighth In Lamkin San Diego Classic
March 13, 2018 | Men's Golf
Up and Down Buffs Still Knock Off Four Ranked Top 50 Teams
CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team failed to make up any ground in struggling through the final round of the Lamkin San Diego Classic Tuesday, finishing eighth in a field that featured 11 of the nation's top 50 teams.
Oklahoma State, the unanimous No. 1 team in country, backed up that ranking with a convincing victory, its fifth in a row and sixth in seven tournaments this season. The Cowboys ran away from the field in winning with a 44-under par 820 team score, easily outdistancing its Big 12 Conference rival and No. 9 Texas Tech by 32 strokes. OSU finished with a 21-under par 267 score in the final round, while the Red Raiders posted the next best with an 8-under 280.
Only two other teams posted subpar rounds Tuesday, including third place No. 35 Arizona (1-under 287 for a 4-under 860 total). All remaining schools were over par for the event, including No. 22 North Carolina and No. 43 Mississippi, the defending champion, who tied for fourth at 1-over 865.
Colorado, ranked No. 47 by GolfStat (and No. 48 by Golfweek), finished with an 8-over 296 for an 11-over tourney total of 875.
The bulk of CU's struggles here can be traced to three stints: those that would score for the team were 6-over par on their first six holes, then 12-over on the last six in the second round and finally 9-over on the initial seven holes of the final round. Otherwise, those same Buffs on the remaining 35 holes were 16-under par.
"It was like in the book, A Tale of Two Cities … 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,'" CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "The start of the day was the continuation of Monday's finish. We were pretty flat and we were as much as 9-or 10-over (par) out of the gate. But the good thing about it is that we have a great group of guys who really compete when they're not playing their best. That's what will carry us forward for the rest of the year."
Edwards did look at the effort with the proverbial glass half-full. "It's a better finish than it looked, we beat some good teams here despite not playing our best."
In the final standings, CU earned eight Division I wins, but bested four ranked teams ahead of it: No. 13 Texas, No. 30 Louisville, No. 34 Colorado State and No. 43 St. Mary's.
Senior Yannik Paul wound up leading the Buffaloes here, as he closed with a 1-over 73 for a 3-over 219 total, which tied him for 32nd. That matched the lowest in the standings the first Buffalo scorer placed this season. He hung around par on all 54 holes here, finishing with nine birdies, 33 pars and 12 bogeys. He played the par-5 holes 10th-best in the 96-man field at 6-under par.
Senior Spencer Painton recorded what amounted to two distinct rallies in the final round. Overall, he rebounded from a second round 78 to shoot CU's only under par score Tuesday (a 1-under 71), which earned him a tie for 40th with a 4-over 220 total. Then after opening with two bogeys and a double in his first four holes, he went on to finish up with six birdies and a single bogey over his final 14 on the day.
Senior John Souza had opened with a pair of 70s but couldn't get settled in pretty much from the get-go in shooting a final round 82 (10-over); that left him at 6-over 222 for the tournament and in a tie for 51st. After opening with a par on No. 1, he then made three straight double bogeys and then after two pars, scored three bogeys in a row to make the turn at 9-over. He did settle down to have a birdie and two bogeys on the back nine.
Sophomore Daniel O'Loughlin and freshman Trevor Olkowski topped off the Colorado effort here, as the pair tied for 62nd with 8-over par 224 totals after both closed the event with 4-over 76s. Unlike Monday where they arrived with 148 scores in different fashions, their rounds were fairly similar Tuesday: O'Loughlin had two birdies, 11 pars, four birdies and a double, while Olkowski finished up with a birdie, 12 pars and five bogeys.
Olkowski did play the tough par-3 holes here (all of which averaged over par) at even, tied for 11th-best in the field.
"We finished on some hard holes Monday and started on those same holes today, but the pin placements today were much more difficult," Edwards noted. "I'm proud of the way the guys hung in there. Spencer came back from being four over to shoot 71, and that is a testament to his determination.
Oklahoma State, the unanimous No. 1 team in country, backed up that ranking with a convincing victory, its fifth in a row and sixth in seven tournaments this season. The Cowboys ran away from the field in winning with a 44-under par 820 team score, easily outdistancing its Big 12 Conference rival and No. 9 Texas Tech by 32 strokes. OSU finished with a 21-under par 267 score in the final round, while the Red Raiders posted the next best with an 8-under 280.
Only two other teams posted subpar rounds Tuesday, including third place No. 35 Arizona (1-under 287 for a 4-under 860 total). All remaining schools were over par for the event, including No. 22 North Carolina and No. 43 Mississippi, the defending champion, who tied for fourth at 1-over 865.
Colorado, ranked No. 47 by GolfStat (and No. 48 by Golfweek), finished with an 8-over 296 for an 11-over tourney total of 875.
The bulk of CU's struggles here can be traced to three stints: those that would score for the team were 6-over par on their first six holes, then 12-over on the last six in the second round and finally 9-over on the initial seven holes of the final round. Otherwise, those same Buffs on the remaining 35 holes were 16-under par.
"It was like in the book, A Tale of Two Cities … 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,'" CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "The start of the day was the continuation of Monday's finish. We were pretty flat and we were as much as 9-or 10-over (par) out of the gate. But the good thing about it is that we have a great group of guys who really compete when they're not playing their best. That's what will carry us forward for the rest of the year."
Edwards did look at the effort with the proverbial glass half-full. "It's a better finish than it looked, we beat some good teams here despite not playing our best."
In the final standings, CU earned eight Division I wins, but bested four ranked teams ahead of it: No. 13 Texas, No. 30 Louisville, No. 34 Colorado State and No. 43 St. Mary's.
Senior Yannik Paul wound up leading the Buffaloes here, as he closed with a 1-over 73 for a 3-over 219 total, which tied him for 32nd. That matched the lowest in the standings the first Buffalo scorer placed this season. He hung around par on all 54 holes here, finishing with nine birdies, 33 pars and 12 bogeys. He played the par-5 holes 10th-best in the 96-man field at 6-under par.
Senior Spencer Painton recorded what amounted to two distinct rallies in the final round. Overall, he rebounded from a second round 78 to shoot CU's only under par score Tuesday (a 1-under 71), which earned him a tie for 40th with a 4-over 220 total. Then after opening with two bogeys and a double in his first four holes, he went on to finish up with six birdies and a single bogey over his final 14 on the day.
Senior John Souza had opened with a pair of 70s but couldn't get settled in pretty much from the get-go in shooting a final round 82 (10-over); that left him at 6-over 222 for the tournament and in a tie for 51st. After opening with a par on No. 1, he then made three straight double bogeys and then after two pars, scored three bogeys in a row to make the turn at 9-over. He did settle down to have a birdie and two bogeys on the back nine.
Sophomore Daniel O'Loughlin and freshman Trevor Olkowski topped off the Colorado effort here, as the pair tied for 62nd with 8-over par 224 totals after both closed the event with 4-over 76s. Unlike Monday where they arrived with 148 scores in different fashions, their rounds were fairly similar Tuesday: O'Loughlin had two birdies, 11 pars, four birdies and a double, while Olkowski finished up with a birdie, 12 pars and five bogeys.
Olkowski did play the tough par-3 holes here (all of which averaged over par) at even, tied for 11th-best in the field.
"We finished on some hard holes Monday and started on those same holes today, but the pin placements today were much more difficult," Edwards noted. "I'm proud of the way the guys hung in there. Spencer came back from being four over to shoot 71, and that is a testament to his determination.
"John just got off to a really bad start. He was in position to score well a couple of times but had some chipping issues. That was uncharacteristic for him, it won't last long and was a one-time deal."
Texas Tech's Fredrik Nilehn claimed medalist honors, firing a 66 Tuesday to close with a 15-under 201 score. That bested Oklahoma State's Viktor Hovland, who had a tournament-best 64 in the final round but was still two strokes back at 13-under 203.
The Buffaloes will return to action in 10 days, and will play in two tournaments in California that bookend CU's annual spring break. The first is the Bighorn Invitational in Palm Desert (March 23-24), with Kansas State as the host; the second is Stanford's "The Goodwin" in Palo Alto (March 29-31).
NOTES: Late in the morning, the course had a special visitor, from above that is ... a helicopter with President Donald Trump made two passes over the golf course, accompanied by two military copters, as he was in San Diego and surveying the Mexico border was on his agenda … Paul's school-record eight straight subpar rounds came to an end with a first round 74, while CU's run of a record nine consecutive rounds under par to nine ended after the first round; that one under par round gave the Buffs 16 rounds of par or better for the season, tying the school mark set in 2013-14 and matched last year … The Buffs were 8-7 against Division I teams here, with their season mark now 83-35-4 … The average score Tuesday was 74.21, the highest of the three rounds; the tournament average was 73.78 … Out of 270 holes here, Oklahoma State made par or better on 236 of them … Painton remains CU's stroke average leader at 71.10 (for 21 rounds), with Paul right behind at 71.17 (18 rounds).
| BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
| T32. | Yannik Paul | 74-72-73—219 |
| T40. | Spencer Painton | 71-78-71—220 |
| T51. | John Souza | 70-70-82—222 |
| T62. | Daniel O'Loughlin | 73-75-76—224 |
| T62. | Trevor Olkowski | 71-77-76—224 |
| INDIVIDUAL LEADERS |
| 1. | Fredrik Nilehn, Texas Tech | 69-66-66—201 |
| 2. | Viktor Hovland, Oklahoma State | 69-70-64—203 |
| 3. | Matthew Wolff, Oklahoma State | 66-72-66—204 |
| 4. | Zach Bauchou, Oklahoma State | 65-72-69—206 |
| 5. | Riley Elmes, Loyola-Marymount | 68-69-71—208 |
TEAM STANDINGS
| 1. | Oklahoma State | 270-283-267—820 |
| 2. | Texas Tech | 292-280-280—852 |
| 3. | Arizona | 285-288-287—860 |
| 4. | North Carolina | 288-284-293—865 |
| 4. | Mississippi | 283-298-284—865 |
| 6. | San Diego State | 285-285-296—866 |
| 7. | Middle Tennessee State | 295-293-285—873 |
| 8. | COLORADO | 285-294-296—875 |
| 9. | Louisville | 285-298-294—877 |
| 9. | Texas | 291-292-294—877 |
| 11. | New Mexico | 298-289-294—881 |
| 12. | Colorado State | 292-286-304—882 |
| 13. | St. Mary's | 292-294-298—884 |
| 14. | Connecticut | 303-289-296—888 |
| 15. | Loyola-Marymount | 287-302-300—889 |
| 16. | San Diego | 298-293-300—891 |
Players Mentioned
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