Posts tagged INVITATIONAL

BUFF GOLFERS MOVE INTO 15tH AT AMER ARI INVITATIONAL

WAIKOLOA, Hawai’i — The University of Colorado men’s golf team improved two spots here Friday into 15th place as the first rounds of the 24th annual Amer Ari Hawaii-Hilo Invitational are now in the books.

No. 3 Oklahoma State remained atop the leaderboard, owning a 28-under par team score of 548; the Cowbuys extened their lead to two strokes, but with No. 60 Oregon moving from sixth into second with a 26-under 550.  No. 13 Washington also moved into the top five, jumping from 10th into third (16-under 272 on the day for a 26-under 552), with No. 25 Southern California and No. 26 Auburn tied for fourth (553); No. 17 UCLA had the best round of the day (17-under 271) and is alone in sixth with a 554.

Colorado, No. 83 in the final Golfweek fall rankings, moved from 17th to 15th with a two-round score of 568, or 8-under par.  The Buffaloes turned in their second best single round score of the season, a 7-under 281, bested only by a 13-under 275 they scored in the first round of the last fall tournament at Texas-El Paso.

CU at one point was 14-under par as a team and in 10th place a little over midway through Friday’s round, with 17 birdies and only three bogeys collectively through either 10 or 11 holes, depending on where the players were on the course.  But in the shotgun format, where the Buffs started on Friday positioned them to close with many of the more challenging holes.

“This will probably be one of if not the toughest tournament this spring in college golf, and we have an opportunity to keep moving up with a good final round tomorrow,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said.  “I think we’re ahead of where we normally would be, we’re doing well and we don’t seem to have a lot of rust.  More than anything, it took us a while to get used to the Bermuda greens.  We just have to keep seeing a little more success with each round and continue building on that.”

The always tough field here has 10 of the nation’s top 50 competing, including three in the top 10; seven of CU’s Pac-12 rivals are among the group.

Jeremy Paul led CU for the second straight round

Freshman Jeremy Paul recorded CU’s best round for the second straight day, turning in a 4-under par 68, as he improved to 7-under 137 for 36 holes which has him tied for 12th overall.  His round included seven birdies and eight pars against three bogeys, and he closed strong with two of those birds coming in his last four holes, including his final hole of the day (No. 12).  He has an eagle, nine birdies and 22 pars through two rounds, with just four holes worse than par (all bogeys).

“Today was much better for sure, even though we played fairly similar to how we did on Thursday, we just made more putts,” Edwards said.  “Jeremy played another solid round, though he really played better than he scored; he gave away a couple of shots on the par-5s.  He usually plays those a few strokes under par and today he was even.”

Junior David Oraee also went sub-70 on Friday, carding a 3-under 69, scoring four birdies and 13 pars against a single bogey; he is in at even-par 144 with one round remaining, as he is tied for 63rd individually.  He birdied three straight holes (Nos. 18, 1 and 2) at one point and had all four of his on the day in a six-hole span.

Sophomore Philip Juel-Berg is also tied for 63rd after fashioning a 2-over par 74, giving him an even-par 144 through two rounds.  He had 14 pars for the second straight day, flipping his birdie-to-bogey count from three-to-one to one-to-three.  He was even through his first 10 holes, but bogeys Nos. 6 and 8 jumped him to 2-over, where he remained for his final five holes.

Freshman Andrew Bonner played more consistently in the second round as he turned in a 1-under 71 for an even-par 144, also tying him for 63rd.  He had three birdies and 13 pars against two bogeys Friday, cutting down his holes over par for the round from five to just two.  He birdied his second hole of the day (No. 17) and remained under par from that point on for the entire round.

Freshman Yannik Paul opened up on fire, and after five birdies within a seven-hole span, stood at 5-under through10 holes, but he cooled off and came back down to Earth, playing his last eight holes at six-over to finish with a 1-over 73.  His 36-hole total of 148 has him tied for 99th,

Senior Johnny Hayes is competing here individually, meaning his score doesn’t count toward CU’s team total; he shot a 3-over 75 for the second straight round, with his 6-over 150 total tying him for 107th.  For the second straight day, he had one birdie, 14 pars, two bogeys and a double, except on Friday, he was even-par with two holes to go and finished up bogey-double.

“David played really solid today, anything under 70 is a good round here,” Edwards said.  “There are a lot of those (rounds in the 60s) here because of the quality of the field, but breaking 70 is a quality score.  He wasn’t himself yesterday but came back and showed what kind of player he has been and is for us.  Yannik was on fire early on, but then had a couple of loose swings on just the wrong holes.  Had those been on some holes where you could hit it a bit off line, you could still come back and make par.  He just had a couple of bad breaks after a terrific start.”

Stanford’s Cameron Wilson used a 7-under 65 to take over the individual lead, as he is with a 12-under 132; three players are one stroke behind him, as 17 players are within five shots of the lead, all at 7-under or better.

The third and final round of the tournament is Saturday, with a shotgun start set for at 10:30 a.m. mountain time.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS  (*—competing individually)

T12.  Jeremy Paul…………………………. 69-68—137

T63.  Philip Juel-Berg…………………….. 70-74—144

T63.  David Oraee…………………………. 75-69—144

T63.  Andrew Bonner…………………….. 73-71—144

T99.  Yannik Paul…………………………… 75-73—148

T107. *Johnny Hayes……………………… 75-75—150

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS

1.  Cameron Wilson, Stanford………… 67-65—132

T2.  Thomas Lim, Oregon……………….. 64-69—133

T2.  Lorens Chan, UCLA………………….. 68-65—133

T2.  Jeffrey Kang, USC…………………… 66-67—133

T5.  Rico Hoey, USC………………………. 65-69—134

T5.  Chelso Barrett, TCU………………… 66-68—134

TEAM SCORES

  1.  Oklahoma State…………………. 271-277—548

2.  Oregon…………………………….. 276-274—550

3.  Washington………………………. 280-272—552

T4.  Southern California……………… 273-280—553

T4.  Auburn…………………………….. 274-279—553

6.  UCLA……………………………….. 283-271—554

T7.  Georgia Tech…………………….. 286-270—556

T7.  TCU…………………………………. 272-284—556

T7.  Texas………………………………. 274-282—556

T10. Arizona State…………………….. 280-277—557

T10. Stanford…………………………… 281-276—557

12.  Texas Tech……………………….. 278-282—560

13.  Hawai’i-Hilo……………………….. 279-286—565

14.  Oregon State…………………….. 285-281—566

15.  COLORADO……………………… 287-281—568

16.  Hawai’i…………………………….. 279-291—570

17.  San Jose State………………….. 290-287—577

18.  UC-Davis………………………….. 290-289—579

19.  Osaka Gakuin…………………….. 286-295—581

20.  CSU-Monterey Bay…………….. 295-287—582

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