| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Golfers Early Spring Struggles Continue Release: 02/19/2013 Courtesy: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PALM DESERT, Calif. - The University of Colorado men's golf team stands in 15th place out of as many teams competing here in the 13th Annual Prestige At PGA West, with play suspended due to darkness for the second straight day with over half the field a few holes shy of completing the second round. No. 6 UCLA is in the team lead at 6-under par, good for a three stroke lead over No. 3 Washington, which did finish its second round with a team score of 3-under 565. No. 15 Oklahoma State is in third at 1-under par, with Texas Tech fourth (even) and no. 8 Southern California (4-over). Play was suspended Monday with anywhere from one to four holes remaining for about half of the field. The winds reared their ugly head on Tuesday, with the breezes blowing a steady 10-15 miles per hour but gusting as high as 35 mph. The Buffs closed out the first round with their four scorers playing the holes they needed to finish at 5-over. "You can score well on this course with no wind," Colorado head coach Roy Edwards said. "But with just a little wind makes it hard, and when they gust makes it very challenging." Unfortunately for the Buffaloes, the second round proved just as frustrating on the 7,046-yard, par-71 Greg Norman Course at PGA West. While the winds made for increased scores among most of the field, CU didn't handle the conditions well, and combined with a tougher set up for the pin placements, the Buffaloes shot a 26-over 310 team score for the round, and combined with a 295 opening round effort, their 37-over, 605 total has the team in last place. "Today, we just made too many big numbers, and that's been the problem in our high rounds this year, when we make a mistake, we seem to make two or three more right after it," Edwards said. "We talk about it all the time, the importance of course management; we just weren't able to execute it today. For instance, as a team we had 16 holes of double bogey or worse that added to 39 strokes. We could have saved 23 shots on those high holes if we had made bogey instead of the larger numbers. And that's all course management." The last six holes have been particularly troublesome for Colorado. The five players here have played those collectively at 29-over par, with the four designated scorers doing so at plus-21. Senior Jason Burstyn has CU's best individual performance after two days, though he followed up an even-par 71 Monday with a 6-over 77 for a 148 score (plus-4); that has him tied for 43rd. Most of his overage Tuesday can be traced to two holes, a double bogey on No. 3 (though he bounced right back with a birdie) and a triple bogey eight on No. 8, his first triple of the entire season after going 385 holes without one. He has four birdies with a team-high 25 pars against five bogeys and the two aforementioned high holes through two rounds. Burstyn did birdie No. 18 to close out his second rounds - CU's lone birdie on hole Nos. 13-18 in two rounds, or 60 holes total. Sophomore David Oraee has turned in a 73-78-151 effort (9-over) for 36 holes, tying him for 60th. He was on course to shoot par for the first round until late bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17; in round two, he endured a triple-bogey seven on No. 3, battled back with three pars and a birdie but then took another seven for a double on No. 8. He has a team-best five birdies, along with 21 pars against seven bogeys, two doubles and a triple. Senior Derek Fribbs is in with a 75-78-153 (11-over) which has him tied for 67th, though he had the best multiple-hole stretch by any Buff on Tuesday when he played Nos. 7-13 at 2-under, with his only two birdies of the round in that span. He otherwise had 11 pars, three bogeys and two triples, the latter doubling his entire count for the year as he had just one previously in 378 holes. He has four birdies and 21 pars in two days here. Freshman Philip Juel-Berg also has an 11-over par 76-77-153 scorecard, tying him for 67th as well. He's had trouble on the last six holes each day, playing them a collective 8-over, including double bogeys both days on the par-4 No. 18. He had four birdies and 21 pars against seven bogeys and four doubles through two rounds. Redshirt freshman Tyler Engel has had his struggles here in his first tournament where his rounds count toward CU's team total. He's recorded a pair of 83s for a 166 total, which has him 87th in the field. Both rounds were fairly similar, with one birdie and eight pars in each; he has 13 bogeys, three double bogeys, a triple and a quadruple. He did show some resiliency Tuesday, as after scoring a triple bogey eight on the par-5 8th hole, he came back with three straight pars, the most in a row he's had in two days here. Washington's Chris Williams is the leader in the clubhouse after a posting a 6-under, 70-68-138 scorecard; two others are tied with him but have three holes remaining in their second round. "We definitely want to clean many of these things up on Wednesday," Edwards said. "There are some positives, there is some good golf happening. I've seen tons of good shots, and that is some encouragement right there. We just need to get back to the basics, and the way you do that is to work hard on your fundamentals and then on your course management." The final round of the tournament is set for Wednesday with players teeing off on both the Nos. 1 and 10 tees; Colorado will be paired with Stirling, San Diego State and a group of individuals beginning at 10:20 a.m. MST. Edwards will then remain in the area for the Wyoming Cowboy Classic while the team returns to Boulder. Three players who did not play here in The Prestige will join him Thursday to play as individuals in the Wyoming event. BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
|
from cubuffs.com
