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| Golfers Slip Into Ninth At NCAA Regional Release: 05/17/2013 Courtesy: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Colorado men’s golf team struggled mightily here Friday in the second round of the NCAA Central/Fayetteville Regional, slipping three spots into ninth place as the Buffaloes now have their work cut out for them to earn a berth into the NCAA Finals. Host and No. 12 Arkansas made the most of its home course advantage, shot the only round under par Friday and zoomed from fifth to first with a 3-under over team score of 573. No. 33 Illinois, the first round leader, is one stroke back at 574. No. 4 Texas is third (583), followed by No. 11 Oklahoma State (590) and No. 22 Kent State (591). The Buffaloes, ranked No. 58 by GolfStat and No. 67 by Golfweek, entered the round in sixth place and just two strokes out of the fifth and final qualifying spot. But at the end of the day, CU held the ninth place position and is 11 strokes back of the last advancing spot after a 22-over 310 for a total score of 602 (26-over). The top five teams out of 14 competing will advance to the NCAA Finals, set for May 28-June 2 in Atlanta, Ga., as will the top two individuals not associated with the five teams that qualify. “The course was playing a lot more difficult and we played poorly at the worst possible time, head coach Roy Edwards said. “We had three guys go high and had to count two 80s, and you just can’t get away with that. You have to be consistent to advance, and it will now take an extremely good round to move on. So we’re a little frustrated but have to put it behind us.” “We were a little off early,” Edwards said of his team’s collective start, which saw the Buffaloes score 12 bogeys and a double before their first birdie on the 9th hole. “We also didn’t play the 10th hole very well, a wedge par-3 (139 yards) and had a couple of rough stretches. It has more to do with how many big numbers you make here instead of the birdies that you don’t. We avoided the big numbers in the first round, but we couldn’t today, and that’s something you have to do here.” Colorado can draw on the fact that in three different tournaments, it shot the best score in the final round, riding one to a victory in its own CU-Mark Simpson Invitational and another to a second place finish in the Wyoming Cowboy Classic. Also, in 1999, the Buffaloes recorded the second largest final round comeback at the time in the 11 years of regional play, making up nine strokes in leaping from 18th place into a tie for 10th and then defeating Kent State on the first playoff hole; Arkansas still owns the biggest comeback, jumping from 20th into 10th in 1990. (The regionals doubled in 2009, with five advancing from six sites instead of 10 from three.) “That’s definitely something we will talk about,” Edwards noted. “We have proven that we have been able to do that in the past, go out and play our best in the final round, and it’s something that we’ll shoot for doing (Saturday).” Senior Derek Fribbs shot CU’s best score of the day, a 1-over 73 on the 7,251-yard, par-72 The Blessings Golf Club course layout. He spent the entire round either 1-over, even or 1-under, which he stood at one point through 15 after he birdied the par-3. But bogeys on Nos. 16 and 18 finished his round, two of just three he had in the round while scoring two birdies and 13 pars. His 3-over total of 147 is Colorado’s best through 26 holes and has him tied for 23rd. His 24 pars are tied for the third most in the 75-man field. Freshman Philip Juel-Berg turned in a 5-over 77 for a 150 total (plus-6), as he recorded a birdie, 11 pars and six bogeys for his round. He’s the only Buffalo not to record a score worse than a bogey in two rounds, a streak that has reached six rounds overall. Of the 14 freshmen in the field; Juel-Berg is currently eighth among them and is tied for 32nd overall. Sophomore David Oraee shot an 8-over 80 for a 36-hole total of 151 (7-over), tying him for 34th; he had two birdies, eight pars, six bogeys and two doubles on his round. He was just 2-over on the front, parring the last five holes after back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 3 and 4, but then went through a stretch from Nos. 10 through 14 where he bogeyed the first four and then doubled 15. He bounced back to birdie 16 and 17, but he closed with a double on 18. Senior Jason Burstyn also struggled to an 80, which gave him a 154 (12-over) total to tie him for 44th; he had the most birdies (3) but also the fewest pars (5) by a Buff on Friday, as he had nine bogeys and double in not getting anything going early. He was 5-over after 6 and 8-over after 11 before he made his first birdie in the round on the par-5 12th, starting a stretch where he birdied three of five holes. Junior Johnny Hayes is tied for 68th with a 21-over 165 total, as he shot a 13-over 85 in the second round. He was 1-over through eight and seemingly in control of things, but a bogey on No. 9 followed by doubles on Nos. 10 and 12 and then a disastrous quintuple on No. 14 led to his high score. He had 11 pars but no birdies on the day. Arkansas’s Austin Cook (72-68) and SMU’s Mario Clemens (70-70) are tied for the individual lead with 4-under 140 scorecards. First round leader, Illinois freshman Charlie Danielson, shot a 6-over 78 after a sizzling 65 in the first round that had earned him a three stroke edge at the time. The final round is set for a 6:30 a.m. start on Saturday; Colorado is paired with SMU an UNC-Wilmington and will begin play on the No. 10 tee. NOTES: The start of the second round was delayed approximately 30 minutes due to fog ... Ten Pac-12 teams are competing in the NCAA Regionals, six of which remained in the top four for the second straight day, including top-ranked California and No. 3 UCLA which are leading their respective events in Tallahassee and Tempe; a seventh is in fifth place and all are in the top 10 ... The average score in the field Friday was 77.07, up from 75.55 in the first round ... Fribbs played his 145th career round, now along by himself with the fourth most in school history; Burstyn played his 133rd, tying him for 12with Knut Ekjord (1994-99) ... Juel-Berg has now played 40 rounds, tying him with Michael Imperato (2008) for the second most ever by a freshman at CU; Terry Kahl played 41 in 1976-77 ... The Buffaloes had eight birdies Friday after 16 on Thursday ... Through two rounds, CU’s problem has been multiple bogeys more so than big number: the Buffaloes have 10 holes of double bogey or worse (eight doubles, a triple and a quintuple totaling 24 strokes over par); that’s tied for the third fewest holes and strokes behind Arkansas (five doubles, three triples, +19) and UNC-Wilmington (seven doubles, two quadruples, +22).
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