The main spring season starts for the men's team tomorrow. Go get'um in Hawaii Buffs!
Preview -
https://cubuffs.com/news/2019/2/5/mens-golfers-open-spring-slate-thursday.aspx
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Men's Golfers Open Spring Slate Thursday
By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information
Release: February 05, 2019
For the 14th Straight Year, Buffs Open In Hawai'i
WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i — The University of Colorado men's golf team will once again open the spring portion of its schedule in "paradise," as for the 14th straight year, the Buffaloes will participate in the 28th annual Amer Ari Hawaii-Hilo Invitational.
The tournament, which runs this Thursday through Saturday, is one of many that open the spring collegiate season and usually provides an early indication of where the Buffs stand nationally. Colorado had an up-and-down kind of fall season, finishing down the line in the rankings (No. 73, GolfStat; No. 81, Golfweek). Those are currently within qualifying range for the NCAA Championships, but the all on the team know they need to improve those rankings and this event provides a solid opportunity to move up.
One again the field comprised here is one of the strongest in the spring, with eight of the nation's top 45 teams (GolfStat rankings) set to compete here, including top-ranked Oklahoma State and No. 2 Georgia Tech. Others include Southern California (No. 8), Texas (No. 14), Auburn (No. 16), Texas Tech (No. 29), Stanford (No. 31) and Oregon (No. 45). Overall, 12 teams in the nation's top 75 are participating, and as always is the case, the 18-team field is saturated with Pac-12 Conference teams, six of which are competing this time around.
The three-day tournament is a real treat for the participants, as the tournament will be played on the renowned 7,074-yard, par-72 Waikoloa King's Course on Hawai'i's Big Island, a Scottish links-style layout with fairways interspersed between ancient lava fields, along with numerous lakes and pot bunkers. The teams will play 18 holes each day in a shotgun start format at 10:30 a.m. MST; temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-70s, but with a 50 percent of showers for Thursday's first round before sunny skies should rule the last two days. The trade winds could kick up as well, expected to be in the teens all three days.
Colorado head coach
Roy Edwards previously had said of the fall season, I thought it was okay, our two wins were actually really good, but when we played poorly, things just weren't good at all. Moving forward, we need to get more consistent. I saw good moments from every player on the roster. Despite the inconsistencies this fall, I'm really excited about this team's direction and what we're going to look like at the end of the year."
The Buffs won two tournaments, the Air Force Miranda Invitational and their own Mark Simpson Invitational, and tid for fourth in Denver's Paintbrush invite that closed the fall. In-between the Buffs struggled in Utah's Showdown in the Rockies (eight out of 10) and in New Mexico's Tucker (seventh out of 17), the two meets with the strongest fields in the fall according to
Golfweek's rankings.
"We are excited to get going this week; the off-season has been a good one," said Edwards. "Guys have been very dedicated working hard and getting better. We had a good weekend last week in Arizona (at an alumni event) and the weather has been decent enough at home we have been able to play. This is a fun group who is very competitive and ready for the spring."
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Six Buffaloes are on trip: juniors
Daniel O'Loughlin (a team-leading 71.2 fall stroke average),
Andre Leveque (73.2) and
Ross Macdonald (73.7), sophomore
Trevor Olkowski (72.1) and freshmen
Kristoffer Max (75.0) and
John Paterson (73.7); Paterson will be playing as an individual while the other five will count toward CU's team scoring total in the event. Macdonald, Max, O'Loughlin and Olkowski played in all five of CU's fall tournaments.
NOTES: It's the 16th time CU will participate in this meet on Hawai'i's "Big Island," having done so two other times when it wasn't the team's first spring competition … Colorado finished 11th here last year; in 2017, the Buffaloes posted their best finish in the event, tying for fourth with a 23-under par 841 team score (with rounds of 281-279-281) … CU was still 11-under par last year (287-284-282), with Olkowski tying for 41st (1-under 215) … O'Loughlin is the only other player returning this year who was in last year's tournament, but after a first round 75, he was forced to withdraw due to illness (and CU thus had to play "four-scoring-four" the final two rounds) … Current assistant coach
Patrick Grady has CU's best individual finish in this meet, as he tied for third as a senior in 2009 (firing a 4-under 212);
Jeremy Paul ('17) and Michael Baird ('08) have the best gross scores of 205 … The Buffs opened the spring in Hawai'i one other time, in 1993 in the John Burns Intercollegiate on Oahu.
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Live leaderboard -
http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=15752
