Golfers Open Season With Runner-Up Finish in Washington

Wednesday, September 11

Pullman, Wash.

All Day

Colorado

Third Round

Swanson recorded three straight rounds in the 60s -- 13th time in CU history.

Photo by: Ka'anapali Golf Course

Golfers Open Season With Runner-Up Finish in Washington

September 11, 2024 | Men's Golf

Sophomore Swanson Posts Career-Best Effort To Lead CU

By: David Plati, SID-Emeritus/Athletic Historian

        PULLMAN, Wash. — The University of Colorado men's golf team had a record couple of days here in the Pacific Northwest as the Buffaloes opened their 102nd season of intercollegiate golf by finishing second here Wednesday in Washington State's Palouse Collegiate.

        Former Pac-12 Conference teams finished in the top four spots, except the top two are now members of the Big 12, which is shaping up to be a formidable power with the ACC and SEC. Utah likely had its best tournament in history, winning with a 52-under par 800 team score. The Buffaloes, ranked 25th in Golf Channel's preseason poll, had a record performance as well, finishing with a 34-under 818 total to grab runner-up honors. Oregon State (824), Washington State (828) and Seattle University (836) rounded out the top five.

        The Buffaloes turned in an 8-under 276 team score in the final round, after opening with 272 and 270 scores; only two teams had better scores in the final round than Colorado.

        This was the sixth time in school history the Buffaloes opened a season with three straight subpar rounds, the first time all were sub-280; the 34-under par was the third-best team performance in relation to par, and the best in a season opener, shattering the old best of 24-under in the 2011 Air Force Gene Miranda Invitational in Colorado Springs. The 818 total was the school best in terms of gross team scoring. CU's second place finish was the school's best in the first event of the season since claiming the Air Force meet in 2019.

CU History: Best Team Scores In Tournament History (*—season opener)
825 (-39)    Denver-Ron Moore Invitational in Denver, Sept. 15-16, 2008 (par-72; 1st)
829 (-35)    CU-Mark Simpson Invitational in Erie, Oct. 7-8, 2019 (par-72; 1st)
818 (-34)    *Washington State Palouse Collegiate at Pullman, Wash., Sept. 10-11, 2024 (par-71; 2nd)
820 (-32)    Hawai'i Ka'anapali Classic at Lahaina, Maui, Oct. 29-31, 2021 (par-71; 2nd)
835 (-29)    CU-Mark Simpson Invitational in Erie, Sept. 27-28, 2021 (par-72; t-5th)
840 (-24)    on four occasions (par-72)

Junior Hunter Swanson led the Buffaloes from wire-to-wire, finishing up with a third straight round in the 60s (a 2-under 69) for a 12-under 201 score, placing him fourth individually, his best finish as a collegian. In recording the three straight sub-70 tallies on the 7,302-yard, par-71 Palouse Ridge Golf Club layout, it marked the 13th time in school history that has been accomplished. His 15 birdies over the two days were the most by a Buff, and he complemented those with 36 pars (12 in each round) and just three bogeys. He started the event with 28 straight holes of par or better before scoring his first and only bogey, and he finished par on all holes: par-3's (-2), par-4's (-6) and par-5's (-4).

Swanson's 12-under effort was the second lowest stroke count in relation to par in a 54-hole event in CU annals, and his 201 total tied for the third lowest gross score as well.

CU History: Best Individual Scores In Tournament History (54 holes; *--medalist)
199 (-11; 66-66-67)    Dylan McDermott, Pac-12 Championship, April 28-29, 2023 (first three round (par-70)
200 (-10; 69-66-65) *Dylan McDermott, Notre Dame Fighting Irish Classic, Sept. 4-5, 2022 (par-70)
201 (- 9; 64-67-70)    Beau Schoolcraft, Wyoming Cowboy Classic, April 9-10, 2011 (par-70)
201 (-12; 65-67-69) Hunter Swanson, Wash. State Palouse Collegiate, Sept. 10-11, 2024 (par-71)
202 (-11; 67-66-69)    Yannik Paul, Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational, April 14-15, 2018 (par-71)
203 (-13; 68-66-69)    Adam Matteson, CU-Mark Simpson Invitational, Sept. 27-28, 2021 (par-72)
203 (-10; 67-71-65)    Tucker Clark, Hawai'i Ka'anapali Classic Collegiate, Oct. 28-30, 2022 (par-71)
203 (-10; 67-67-69)    Justin Biwer, Mirabel Maui Jim Intercollegiate, Sept. 8-10, 2023 (par-71)
203 (- 7; 65-72-66)    Dylan McDermott, Notre Dame Fighting Irish Classic, Oct. 4-5, 2021 (par-70)
204 (- 9; 70-63-71) Dylan McDermott, Wash. State Palouse Collegiate, Sept. 10-11, 2024 (par-71)

"Mainly ball striking, I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, and like coach says, 'wear out of the greens,'" Swanson said when asked what he did well over the two days. "The first 36 holes, I think I missed only two greens in regulation, and I only had one bogey, which was a three-putt from 25 feet on the 17th hole (ironically, they made that a par-4 for the tournament as opposed to a par-5 for the public). Today was much of the same thing, I felt I hit the ball pretty well, though I had a few rough holes. The conditions were tougher with the course wet from an early morning rain, and the course set up tougher."

        Swanson started strong a year ago, but cooled off a bit when the season wore on. But he's prepared for that not to happen again.

        "Last year I got off to pretty good start before falling off a bit, but I know what I need to do to prevent that again," he said. "I need to keep the same routine in practice every day. What I mean by that is that I just need to make sure when I'm practicing every time, I'm doing what I need to do to prepare for a tournament, doing specific focused practices instead of the same old thing every time."

        Senior Dylan McDermott tied for ninth after closed with an even-par 71 for a 9-under 204, which actually tied the 10th lowest gross score ever at Colorado. His second round 63, the third-ever at CU, was the impetus for the finish. Overall, he had CU's only eagle to go with 13 birdies and 35 pars against four bogeys and a double. As did Swanson, he played the par-4 holes the best at 6-under by a Buff.

        Senior Justin Biwer finished up with a 6-under 65 – tying the third best score in the final round – which gave him a 7-under 206 total overall; he was able to move up 22 spots into a tie for 15th. In the tougher conditions, he had seven birdies, tied for the second-most in the final round in the 90-man field, with 10 pars and a single bogey; the latter was on his fourth hole of the round, thus he finished with 14 straight of par or better. Overall, he had 13 birdies, 35 pars and just six bogeys, and played the par-5s the best at 6-under, tied for the team-best. His 65 matched his previous career best, which he shot as a freshman in Hawai'i's Ka'anapali Classic (also on a par-71 course); it was his 33rd career round in the 60s, which is fifth all-time at CU.

        Sophomore Brandon Knight tied for 25th after closed with a 1-over 72 for a 4-under 209 score, his second career event where he finished under par; it was also his second top 25 finish in his young CU career. He was steady on Wednesday with one birdie and 15 pars, and wrapped things her with 12 birdies and 34 pars with eight bogeys. He joined Biwer in playing the par-5 holes the best at 6-under, and was even on the 15 par-3 holes, second-best behind Swanson.

        Sophomore Ty Holbrook fashioned an even-par 71 to polish things off, as he tied for 48th with a 1-over 214, his second-best 54-hole effort in his brief Buff career. He had four birdies and 10 pars in the final round, and overall, he had 14 birdies – second-most by a Buff – with 28 pars opposite nine bogeys and three doubles in just his second time as a designated scorer. He was 4-under on the par-5s. He had won CU's qualifying for the event to earn the No. 1 position to open the season.

        Senior Freddy Eisenbeis competed here as an individual (his score did not counting toward the team total); he wrapped things with a 2-under 69 that enabled him to move up 13 spots into a tie for 35th with a 2-under 211 score. In placing fourth out of the 15 players that competed here as individuals, he had seven birdies and 42 pars with just five bogeys – the 42 pars his career-high, topping the 40 he had on two previous occasions. He had a run of 22 consecutive holes of par or better during the second and third rounds (14 and eight, respectively), the second-longest streak of his career.

        "That was a really good round today from Justin -- he looked strong the entire day," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "Obviously a great event overall for Hunter. Freddy has a nice round today as an individual. We saw some good stuff from all six players this week at times for sure, and it was a good way to start the season, going 13-1 (against Division I competition). Utah has one of the best teams in the country this year and we look for this event to motivate us heading into the next few tournaments."

        "We will keep working on our short games and strategy," Edwards added. "Some great golf is ahead for this group."

        Utah sophomore Sergio Jimenez had an impressive tournament in claiming medalist honors; the Madrid, Spain product finished with a 21-under par score of 192 after posting rounds of 61, 68 and 63. He defeated teammate Gabriel Palacios by six strokes.

        Colorado returns to action next week in two events. Four individuals will travel to Phoenix to participate in Arizona State's Papago Individual (Sept. 16-17), while the Buffaloes as a team will hit I-25 north to Fort Collins to play in Colorado State's Ram Masters Invitational.

NOTES: It rained a bit before play began, but it was mostly cloudy all round with the temperatures in the upper 50s before reaching a high of 63 … All 13 occasions where a player has scored three rounds in the 60s in the same event (as well as the three times it happened with four) have occurred in the Edwards Era at Colorado (2006-present) … Including Eisenbeis as an individual, the Buffs had 11 subpar rounds (seven in the 60s), four even rounds and just three on the unhappy side of par (which combined were only four strokes over) …CU's fourth man average here was 71.0; the average score it had to throw out was a 72.0 … The average score for all 270 rounds over both days was just about even-par: 70.99 (71.12 in the final round) … All told, 44 players finished under par with two others even out of 90 in the field … The Buff scorers had one eagle, 67 birdies and 168 pars in all, with just 34 holes worse than par (and just four double bogeys) … Colorado collectively played the par-5's at 24-under, the par-4's at 11-under and the par-3's at 4-over … In addition to going 13-1 overall, the Buffs were 36-4-2 in rounds … From this point on, every time Biwer has a round of par or better, he'll be adding to his CU career-best all-time number, which is now at 76 after his 65 Wednesday.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

4.	Hunter Swanson	65-67-69—201
T9.	Dylan McDermott	70-63-71—204
T15.	Justin Biwer	71-70-65—206
T25.	Brandon Knight	66-71-72—209
T35.	*Freddy Eisenbeis	72-70-69—211
T48.	Ty Holbrook	73-70-71—214

(*—competed as an individual.)

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1.	Sergio Jimenez, Utah	61-68-63—192
2.	Gabriel Palacios, Utah	68-64-66—198
3.	Kristof Panke, Wyoming	67-65-67—199
4.	Hunter Swanson, Colorado	65-67-69—201
T5.	Zach Miller, Oregon State	67-72-63—202
T5.	Jonathan Kim, Nevada	67-70-65—202

TEAM STANDINGS

1.	Utah	266-267-267—800
2.	COLORADO	272-270-276—818
3.	Oregon State	278-275-271—824
4.	Washington State	274-278-276—828
5.	Seattle	274-284-284—836
6.	Wyoming	275-277-280—832
7.	San Jose State	272-280-284—836
8.	Sacramento State	276-276-285—837
9.	Pacific	274-279-287—840
10.	San Diego	283-278-283—844
11.	Idaho	275-285-286—846
12.	Utah Valley	275-288-289—852
13.	Gonzaga	281-289-283—853
14.	Nevada	283-284-287—854
15.	CSU Northridge	289-306-292—887