Posts tagged Freshman Philip Juel Berg
Buff golfers rise to the top of the heap
Apr 10th
BUFFs FINISH SECOND AT WYOMING COWBOY CLASSIC SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. —
The University of Colorado men’s golf team had quite the final tune-up for the Pac-12 Championship later this month, as the Buffaloes used near-record improvement from one round to the next to jump from seventh into a second place finish in the Wyoming Cowboy Classic here Tuesday.
Colorado turned in the low round of the wind-shortened tournament, a 6-under 274 for a two round total of 580, second only to Gonzaga, which turned a 275 in the second round for a 574 overall score. CU had opened with a 306 score in extremely windy conditions Monday, which forced the cancellation of the second round after a nearly six hour first round, in which only two of the 24 teams in the field broke 300; on Tuesday in much calmer weather, all but one shot better than 300. No. 22 St. Mary’s (Calif.) and No. 40 Tulsa tied for third at 582, with Pac-12 rival Arizona fifth at 584. First round leader Wichita State fell to sixth with a 587 count. The Buffs, ranked No. 64 by GolfStat and No. 74 by Golfweek, defeated five teams ranked ahead of them and improved their record against Division I competition this season to 96-53.
It’s the third time that Colorado has finished either first or second in a tournament five times in a season: in 1980-81, the Buffs won two and had three runner-up efforts as they have done this year, and in 2008-09, CU had one win and four seconds. The team’s 32-stroke improvement from one round to the next was the second best in school annals; in the 1985 Air Force Falcon Invitational, the Buffs shot a first round 414 and then a second round 381 for a 33-shot improvement. That was a six player-five scorer tournament; the previous best in the more common five-for-four was 29-strokes in the 2005 PING-Arizona Intercollegiate (312 to 283 between the first and second rounds). “A great job by the team today, and any time you shoot the low round of the day in a tournament you are excited,” head coach Roy Edwards said.
“To do it in a field of 24 teams and in the final round is particularly satisfying. We didn’t play very well yesterday, but the team really battled in very challenging conditions and was in position to shoot a low score.” All five CU designated scorers improved their scores Tuesday, led by junior Johnny Hayes, who rallied to fire a 1-under 69 after an 85 on Monday – the 16-stroke improvement tied for the fourth largest in CU history, trailing the top best of 18 (John Nyuli in the 1990 Miami-Doral Invitational, when he shot a second round 90 and a final round 72), and two 17 shot make ups (Rick Cramer at the 1989 New Mexico Tucker Invitational and Edward McGlasson in the 2002 Prestige at PGA West). Hayes vaulted from 116th place in the standings into a tie for 80th on the 7,133-yard, par-70 Talking Stick North Course layout with his 154, or 14-over par score. Senior Jason Burstyn lopped off nine strokes between rounds, with his 76-67—143 (3-over) effort tying him for 10th, as he moved up from 27th. He was among the leaders in par-3 (sixth) and par-4 (14th) scoring. Freshman Philip Juel-Berg did the same, as he fashioned a 79-70—149 scorecard here to tie for 40th, jumping 30 spots; his 25 pars were a team high and tied for the 14th most in the field. CU’s top finisher was senior Derek Fribbs, who tied for seventh. He had posted CU’s best first round score with a 4-over 74, and he managed to shave six strokes off that effort with a 2-under 68 for a 36-hole total of 142. He tied for the third most birdies in the field here with seven, played the two par-5 holes here at 3-under, tied for the best overall, and the 12 par-4 holes here at 4.08 per, sixth best. “Jason and Derek played really solid and Johnny did an awesome job of coming back from a poor first round,” Edwards said. “The team should be proud, but we need to continue to work and improve every day leading up to the Pac-12 Championship. We are fortunate to have a great group of guys who I know are very excited to keep getting better.” Sophomore David Oraee rounded out the CU scorers, finishing with a 77-76—153 (13-over) score, which tied him for 72nd. Redshirt freshman Drew Trujillo played as an individual here, and he tied for 95th (77-79—156). UC-Santa Barbara junior Glen Scher captured medalist honors with a 70-68—138, the only player under par in the tournament; there was a four-way tie for second with those players at an even par 140. The average score for 250 rounds here was almost six over par at 75.88, though it dropped from 78.64 to 73.06 between the two rounds. The Pac-12 Championships are in three weeks, set for April 29-May 1 at Los Angeles Country Club. Colorado appears to be peaking at the right time: the Buffs are 11-29 this year against Pac-12 opposition, but the bulk of that damage came in three tournaments, including the first two out of the chute this spring where the Buffs were 0-24; CU is 6-1 against league brethren in the last month.
by David Plati Associate AD/Sports Information University of Colorado Buffaloes 357 UCB / Fieldhouse Annex #50 Boulder, CO 80309-0357 303/492-5626 (office)
Buff golfers rally at UCI invitational for 4th place
Mar 26th
Juel-Berg Ties For 10th, Buffs Rally From Eighth
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — The University of Colorado men’s golf team rallied for a fourth place finish here Tuesday as the UC-Irvine Anteater Invitational came to a close.
The Buffaloes started the day in eighth place after two uncharacteristically bad rounds on Monday, but rallied to shoot the best team score on Tuesday (by some six shots) and the second best round overall in the tournament.
Long Beach State (ranked No. 85) won the event with an 891 team score (27-over par), edging Cal State-Fullerton (No. 90) by three shots; the two entered the final round tied for the lead. Host and No. 77 UC-Irvine finished third (895), with Colorado overtaking four schools to finish fourth with a 42-over 906 total.
The Buffaloes were the highest ranked team competing here (No. 71 in the latest Golfweek rankings), and played like it Tuesday. Assistant coach Jon Levy coached the team here, as head coach Roy Edwards was in Kansas City attending his grandmother’s funeral. Levy had said after Monday’s play that, “This is the kind of golf course that if you have a good round, you can leapfrog a lot of teams, and that’s our goal (Tuesday) to go out and do just that.” He turned out be absolutely correct.
“We absolutely held to our game plan today, and that was the difference,” Levy said. “This was a tough course, probably one of the toughest we’ve played all year. Our game plan was to play conservatively and let the other teams make the mistakes. We knew we would have to take some bogeys, but let the other teams make the big numbers and we’d be satisfied with pars on the tougher holes. The pin locations were challenging and the greens were firm, but we did a great job of not short siding the ball today. We literally improved 100 percent on that.”
The five Buffs competing here totaled 17 birdies compared to just 16 for two rounds on Monday, and recorded just 19 bogeys, both bests in the 11-team field Tuesday.
Starting on No. 10, a deceivingly hard hole, CU scored four bogeys and a quadruple, but the players were in the right frame of mind out of the gate: no one in the 69-man field birdied the hole and only 25 were able to score par. From that point on, the four players who scored for CU collectively played even par golf the remaining 18 holes.
Freshman Philip Juel-Berg paced the Buffaloes here, as he tied for 10th after finishing up with a 1-over 73 for a 7-over 223 total for 54 holes on the 7,060-yard, par-72 El Niguel Country Club course. He had a team-best six birdies Tuesday, with six pars, five bogeys and a double. His 11 birdies for the tournament led the Buffs and also tied for the third-most in the field, as did his playing the par-5 holes at 5-under overall. His 15 holes over par were also a team low as he finished in the top 10 for a second straight tournament.
Senior Jason Burstyn turned in CU’s best score in the final round, a 1-under 71 that propelled him into a tie for 21st (up from 40th); he finished with an 11-over 227 score and he closed with an eagle, three birdies and 10 pars against four bogeys. He was 2-under at one point before scoring a pair of quick bogeys, but he came back with his eagle on the par-5 sixth hole to get back under for the round. He was the lone Buff not score worse than a bogey the entire tournament.
Senior Derek Fribbs and redshirt freshman Drew Trujillo tied for 24th individually (after both entered the day tied for 35th); they each scored 2-over par 74s to wrap things up, closing with 13-over 229 totals. Fribbs had three birdies and 11 pars in his round (against three bogeys and a double), closing on a wild ride his last four holes (birdie, double, bogey, birdie), while Trujillo had two birdies, 12 pars and four bogeys; he was 3-over after 10 but had his two birdies on the way in.
Sophomore David Oraee finished with a second consecutive 78, giving him a 23-over par 239 total, which tied him for 52nd. He opened with a quadruple bogey 8 on No. 10, when his drive kicked to the left and went out of bounds by all of three inches, and then followed that up with a double on No. 11, but then was able to gather himself and finish the remaining 16 holes even, scoring three birdies, 10 pars and three bogeys along the way.
Loyola-Marymount’s Connor Campbell claimed medalist honors, closing with a 1-under 71 that gave him a 216 total – the only player in the field to shoot par or better for the tournament. He defeated second round leader, Long Beach State’s Daniel Chin, by one stroke.
“We wanted to build some momentum today going into a really big event coming up,” Levy added. “That was the message we talked about last night. Play loose, don’t play so tight; out there and have some fun.”
The Buffaloes will now head up the coast to Palo Alto, where they will compete in the Stanford U.S. Intercollegiate this Thursday through Saturday.
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CU men’s golf team wins championship
Mar 11th
Burstyn Third, Four Buffs In Top 20
The University of Colorado men’s golf team turned in one of its finest performances of the year in winning the Bandon Dunes Championship here Sunday.
The Buffaloes had four players finish in the top 17 in recording a 2-under par 862 team score, the only one in the 17-team field that was under par as CU posted two of its best single round scores this season the last two days to earn the win. Colorado spent the entire tournament in either first or second, and was never out of the lead the final 30 holes.
The Buffs, ranked No. 79 this week, defeated eight teams ranked ahead of them in going from worst to first in consecutive tournaments for the first time in program history; two weeks ago, CU was 15th out of as many teams in The Prestige at PGA West. That accomplishment topped the 1998-98 team, which opened the spring with a 17th place finish out of 18 teams in the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate but bounced back to win the Southwest Classic its next time out.
It was Colorado’s second major tournament win of the season, as the Buffs won the Air Force Falcon Invitational last September, and also enabled CU to climb back over the .500 mark against Division I teams, improving to 58-52. CU’s last spring tournament victories came in 2008, with wins in both the Louisiana Classics and the Ohio State Kepler Intercollegiate.
Fresno State zoomed into second place, but still finished five shots behind the Buffaloes (867) despite playing the last six holes at 11-under par. No. 3 Washington also turned in a 9-under par final round but couldn’t catch CU in taking third with an 873 score. Rounding out the top five were No. 49 Oregon (874) and No. 14 SMU (882).
It was CU’s first win over a Top 5 team since 2004, when it won the Western Intercollegiate over No. 4 Georgia Tech, and its first against a team ranked third or higher since the 1994 NCAA Central Regional, when the Buffaloes finished second, one spot ahead of No. 1 Oklahoma State.
“The credit really goes to the guys, they did a phenomenal job,” Colorado head coach Roy Edwards said. “Even though we finished where we did in Palm Springs, we played better (than in the spring opener at Hawai’i), we just had too many big numbers. From that standpoint, I definitely saw improvement. The guys were motivated to come out and compete this week and prove that they’re a good team and we definitely did that.”
This is just the fourth time in program history that the Buffaloes have won two major tournaments in the same season, and the first time they have one at least one in both the fall and spring seasons. Three of the four times have happened under Edwards, who is in his seventh year as head coach.
“I know the guys have been working on being more consistent, being generally smarter than they had been with their play,” Edwards said. “We were never too high or too low, the guys were calm this morning and they expected to do well, despite the last couple of tournaments.”
How consistent was CU this weekend? For the 15 rounds combined (270 holes), the five Buffaloes combined for only five double bogeys, zero in the last 179 holes, and no scores worse; they had 50 birdies and 53 bogeys in playing a season-best 79 percent of the holes at par or better.
Senior Jason Burstyn paced the Buffaloes for the seventh time in nine tournaments this season, closing with a second 1-under 71 on the 6,859-yard, par-72 Old Macdonald Course, giving him a 2-under 214 which tied for third, four strokes out of the lead. He flirted with medalist honors early after birdying two of his first five holes and went on to post his third top five finish this season, his fourth in the top 10.
Burstyn completed the tournament with 10 birdies and 37 pars against just six bogeys and a double. He lowered his team-leading stroke average to 71.9, as added to his bests of 15 rounds of par or better, including 12 subpar rounds.
“I felt like I made some pretty good par putts to keep my momentum going,” Burstyn said. “I had a few three putts, but I made a lot of lag putts from 50 feet or so. These greens are tough, big and have a lot of undulation. I have a new driver and I was able to keep it low, under the wind, and that’s been helping as well.”
He had some help for really just the second time this year, as CU had a season-best four players that counted toward the team score in the top 20, and matched best with three at par or better.
“It’s always great to see your teammates play well, and that definitely takes a little pressure off,” Burstyn said. “I still want to do my best no matter what, but it still makes things a little easier. I am proud of everybody.
“We still didn’t even get to practice that much for this tournament,” he added about preparing for Bandon Dunes. “We’ve seemed to be indoors forever. It’s almost like we play better when the conditions are worse. Even two years ago, our first time out here, we played pretty well. The warmer climate teams aren’t used to this, even though the last two days here weren’t bad at all, at least to us.”
Sophomore David Oraee got off to a hot start Sunday, birdying his first three holes (Nos. 2-4) en route to carding a 2-under 70, CU’s best score in the final round. That gave him a 1-under 215 overall, tying him for sixth place, his second best finish of the year. He had four birdies, 12 pars and two bogeys, giving him 11 birdies and 34 pars on the weekend, against just eight total bogeys and a double.
Freshman Philip Juel-Berg also posted his second best finish of the year, fashioning a 1-under 71 Sunday for an even-par 216 total, tying him for ninth place. He opened with a bogey, but after scoring a par reeled off three quick birdies in succession before playing the last 13 holes at 1-over; he had a team-best 12 birdies in the tourney and was the only Buff not score worse than a bogey.
Senior Derek Fribbs carded a 2-over 74, which gave him a 2-over 218, tying him for 17th. He had one of CU’s two low rounds of the tournament (a second round 70), wrapping things up Sunday with three birdies, 10 pars and five bogeys; he had 11 birdies and 31 pars on the weekend. He had one bad patch in the final round (bogeys on Nos. 9-10-11), otherwise would have also been under par for the meet.
Redshirt freshman Drew Trujillo closed strong, as he was playing in his first tournament where his scores counted toward the CU team total. His first two here did not, but his final round 1-over 73 did, as he cruised around with two birdies, 13 pars and just three bogeys to finish with a 15-over 231 total, tying him for 73rd. He birdied his first hole for the second straight day, and would have turned in an even-par effort had he not bogeyed his last hole (No. 2).
Fresno State’s Troix Tonkham claimed medalist honors, as he closed with a 69 for a 6-under 210 total, good for a three-shot win over teammate Rufie Fessler.
“This certainly is a confidence builder,” Edwards said. “I think everyone was frustrated because we knew we were a good team but we just weren’t showing it. It also shows the resolve of the team because it proved that they could come out and beat a lot of high quality teams. All we did was to just put things together a little bit better. College golf nowadays is so competitive, if that you are a little off, you will get beat and sometimes beat badly.”
This was the seventh tournament win under Edwards, snapping a tie with the late Les Fowler for the second-most in a coaches’ reign at CU; the late Mark Simpson’s teams won 16. Both coached at the school for 29 seasons.
The Buffaloes return to action in two weeks, when they will travel to California during CU’s spring break to participate in the Cal-Irvine Anteater Invitational (March 25-26) and the Stanford U.S. Intercollegiate (March 28-30).
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