Colorado University Athletics
Each Pac-12 team posed with USC's famous Song Girls at Sunday's banquet left to right: Daniel O'Loughlin, Spencer Painton, Yannik Paul, Ross Macdonald, John Souza, Trevor Olkowski).
Pac-12 Men's Golf Championships Begin Monday
April 23, 2018 | Men's Golf
Buffaloes are primed with 36 hole day ahead of them
ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. — the 59th Annual Pac-12 Conference men's golf championships, the seventh edition with 12 schools, begins here Monday, but there's no clear-cut favorite for the league crown.
California enters as the Pac-12's top team, No. 5 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Stanford (No. 12), Arizona State (No. 15), Southern California (No. 22) and UCLA (No. 24) are also in the top 25, while the Buffaloes at No. 45 join two others in the top 50.
The teams will begin play Monday with 36 holes, followed by 18 each on Tuesday and Wednesday at Rolling Hills Country Club, which is due south of Los Angeles; it will sport a 7,155-yard, par-71 configuration for the tournament. The course's nuances will be bit of a mystery, as it opened last November and coaches and players were prohibited from playing it in advance until this weekend's practice rounds. The layout is a bit unusual as well, with just three par-3 holes as opposed to almost always normal four count; there are just two par-5s with 13 par-4s.
"It's kind of link style course, they took an old course and completely gutted it, CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "There's some room off the tee, very little rough and the ball should roll along the ground a little easier.
The Buffaloes will be represented by seniors Spencer Painton, Yannik Paul and John Souza, sophomores Ross Macdonald and Daniel O'Loughlin and freshman Trevor Olkowski. Paul leads the team in stroke average at 70.52, with Painton (71.63) and O'Loughlin (71.68) also sub-72; CU has only had five players total finish a season below 72, and had two players accomplish it just once back in 2008-09. Kane Webber (71.46 in 2003-04), Derek 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 last year).
Paul will become the 25th player in CU history (out of over 350) to play in four league championship meets, joining such past CU greats as Tolan, Webber, Terry Kahl, Steve Jones, Rick Cramer, Bobby Kalinowski, Knut Ekjord, Matt Zions, Edward McGlasson and the three most recent— David Oraee, Philip Juel-Berg and Ethan Freeman, all in the last three years. Kalinowski is the last Buff to win a conference title, claiming Big 8 medalist honors in both 1993 and 1994.
"I think it's a great mix with three seniors, two sophomores and a freshman, and they are really a well-experienced group," Edwards said. "But the most impressive thing about this team is their competitiveness and their support for one another."
The Pac-12 has produced the nation's top three players in stroke average, led by Cal's Collin Morikawa (68.67), USC's Justin Suh (68.69) and Oregon's Norman Xiong (68.78). All three are currently better than the NCAA record of 68.93 by Wake Forest's Bill Haas, which he set in 2003-04.
Colorado's enjoyed a good season to date, with one win, four top three and seven top eight finishes in playing what is the nation's 66th toughest schedule.
"I've been really pleased with the season, especially how we played this spring and how the team has developed," Edwards said. "We have had a lot of really good things happen, our seniors have really stepped up, and Daniel and Trevor as new players have come into their own. I feel like we've already accomplished lot and everyone is excited to have a good week at the Pac-12 Championships and beyond."
The team is coming off a bit of a disappointing showing in its final tune-up, a ninth place finish in Arizona State's Thunderbird Invitational. Though Paul broke through and won his first major tournament (carding an 11-under 202), no one else finished higher than 52nd. But does that bother Edwards?
"Not really. Sometimes you just don't play that well, and a couple of the guys were a little off their games on a golf course that wasn't a great fit for us. It (Karsten Golf Course) can be a little bit tricky. There was a little bit of wind the first day, and the hole locations were fairly difficult. In a way, that was a good experience for us, playing on Bermuda (grasses) where we haven't played a lot because you don't know what courses lie ahead at this time of year."
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 first time this season that the Buffs are competing in a 6-for-5.
"I think we're a good match-up for it (the course), Edwards said. "Ross is playing in the six-spot and he's been playing well, and I think this is a good format for us for this year's team. What is a key stat and a confidence builder is that our fifth-man scoring average is the lowest it's ever been."
NOTES: That fifth-man scoring average is 76.1; the best mark is 77.3, set just last year. The fourth-man average is also contending to be a record, as it stands at 73.7 going into the Pac-12's with the best of 74.5 set each of the last two seasons … Colorado is 13-15-2 versus Pac-12 schools this year, 40-45-5 in rounds and have seen every Pac-12 colleague at least once ... CU is 117-50-5 against Division I competition (104-35-3 outside of the Pac-12; 5-25-0 versus the top 25, 17-42-2 vs. the top 50 and 41-49-5 against the top 100), clinching a better than .500 record and thus has met the first criteria for selection into the NCAA Regionals (May 14-16) ... Oregon is the defending champion, with eight different schools having won the title over the last 14 seasons; Oregon State, Washington State and the two 2012 newcomers, CU and Utah, are the only ones without a Pac-12 crown ... Opening pairings are by a random draw (sans the defending champ, which opens in the first groups on No. 1); Colorado is paired with Southern California and Washington and will tee off on No. 10 from 9:21-10:16 a.m. MDT (Round 1) and from 2:36-3:31 p.m. (Round 2) ... The Pac-12 Network is covering the event and will debut a one-hour special on Sunday, May 6 at 11 a.m. MDT ... The NCAA Championship selections will be announced live on the Golf Channel on Wednesday, May 2 beginning at 3:30 p.m. MDT (also streamed live on its website) ... Oregon will host the 2019 Pac-12 Championships next April (dates TBA) ... Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
California enters as the Pac-12's top team, No. 5 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Stanford (No. 12), Arizona State (No. 15), Southern California (No. 22) and UCLA (No. 24) are also in the top 25, while the Buffaloes at No. 45 join two others in the top 50.
The teams will begin play Monday with 36 holes, followed by 18 each on Tuesday and Wednesday at Rolling Hills Country Club, which is due south of Los Angeles; it will sport a 7,155-yard, par-71 configuration for the tournament. The course's nuances will be bit of a mystery, as it opened last November and coaches and players were prohibited from playing it in advance until this weekend's practice rounds. The layout is a bit unusual as well, with just three par-3 holes as opposed to almost always normal four count; there are just two par-5s with 13 par-4s.
"It's kind of link style course, they took an old course and completely gutted it, CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "There's some room off the tee, very little rough and the ball should roll along the ground a little easier.
The Buffaloes will be represented by seniors Spencer Painton, Yannik Paul and John Souza, sophomores Ross Macdonald and Daniel O'Loughlin and freshman Trevor Olkowski. Paul leads the team in stroke average at 70.52, with Painton (71.63) and O'Loughlin (71.68) also sub-72; CU has only had five players total finish a season below 72, and had two players accomplish it just once back in 2008-09. Kane Webber (71.46 in 2003-04), Derek 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 last year).
Paul will become the 25th player in CU history (out of over 350) to play in four league championship meets, joining such past CU greats as Tolan, Webber, Terry Kahl, Steve Jones, Rick Cramer, Bobby Kalinowski, Knut Ekjord, Matt Zions, Edward McGlasson and the three most recent— David Oraee, Philip Juel-Berg and Ethan Freeman, all in the last three years. Kalinowski is the last Buff to win a conference title, claiming Big 8 medalist honors in both 1993 and 1994.
"I think it's a great mix with three seniors, two sophomores and a freshman, and they are really a well-experienced group," Edwards said. "But the most impressive thing about this team is their competitiveness and their support for one another."
The Pac-12 has produced the nation's top three players in stroke average, led by Cal's Collin Morikawa (68.67), USC's Justin Suh (68.69) and Oregon's Norman Xiong (68.78). All three are currently better than the NCAA record of 68.93 by Wake Forest's Bill Haas, which he set in 2003-04.
Colorado's enjoyed a good season to date, with one win, four top three and seven top eight finishes in playing what is the nation's 66th toughest schedule.
"I've been really pleased with the season, especially how we played this spring and how the team has developed," Edwards said. "We have had a lot of really good things happen, our seniors have really stepped up, and Daniel and Trevor as new players have come into their own. I feel like we've already accomplished lot and everyone is excited to have a good week at the Pac-12 Championships and beyond."
The team is coming off a bit of a disappointing showing in its final tune-up, a ninth place finish in Arizona State's Thunderbird Invitational. Though Paul broke through and won his first major tournament (carding an 11-under 202), no one else finished higher than 52nd. But does that bother Edwards?
"Not really. Sometimes you just don't play that well, and a couple of the guys were a little off their games on a golf course that wasn't a great fit for us. It (Karsten Golf Course) can be a little bit tricky. There was a little bit of wind the first day, and the hole locations were fairly difficult. In a way, that was a good experience for us, playing on Bermuda (grasses) where we haven't played a lot because you don't know what courses lie ahead at this time of year."
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 first time this season that the Buffs are competing in a 6-for-5.
"I think we're a good match-up for it (the course), Edwards said. "Ross is playing in the six-spot and he's been playing well, and I think this is a good format for us for this year's team. What is a key stat and a confidence builder is that our fifth-man scoring average is the lowest it's ever been."
NOTES: That fifth-man scoring average is 76.1; the best mark is 77.3, set just last year. The fourth-man average is also contending to be a record, as it stands at 73.7 going into the Pac-12's with the best of 74.5 set each of the last two seasons … Colorado is 13-15-2 versus Pac-12 schools this year, 40-45-5 in rounds and have seen every Pac-12 colleague at least once ... CU is 117-50-5 against Division I competition (104-35-3 outside of the Pac-12; 5-25-0 versus the top 25, 17-42-2 vs. the top 50 and 41-49-5 against the top 100), clinching a better than .500 record and thus has met the first criteria for selection into the NCAA Regionals (May 14-16) ... Oregon is the defending champion, with eight different schools having won the title over the last 14 seasons; Oregon State, Washington State and the two 2012 newcomers, CU and Utah, are the only ones without a Pac-12 crown ... Opening pairings are by a random draw (sans the defending champ, which opens in the first groups on No. 1); Colorado is paired with Southern California and Washington and will tee off on No. 10 from 9:21-10:16 a.m. MDT (Round 1) and from 2:36-3:31 p.m. (Round 2) ... The Pac-12 Network is covering the event and will debut a one-hour special on Sunday, May 6 at 11 a.m. MDT ... The NCAA Championship selections will be announced live on the Golf Channel on Wednesday, May 2 beginning at 3:30 p.m. MDT (also streamed live on its website) ... Oregon will host the 2019 Pac-12 Championships next April (dates TBA) ... Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
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