Posts tagged Philip Juel Berg
Buff Golfers are hungry for NCAA championship
May 15th
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Colorado men’s golf team is back in the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2009, as the Buffaloes are ready to go in the Central/Fayetteville Regional which begins here Thursday.
Colorado, ranked No. 58 in the nation (GolfStat; No. 67 Golfweek) is the No. 10 seed in the field is looking to advance to the NCAA Championship Finals for the first time since 2002.
The Buffs have been idle since May 1, when they finished 10th at the Pac-12 Championships in Los Angeles. CU was in position for a first division (top six) finish, but had a disastrous final day that dropped it from seventh into 10th.
“We really haven’t practiced since the Pac-12 Championship,” said head coach Roy Edwards. “That is by design. These guys are students first and they had their semester projects and finals until (last) Thursday. So they were all in with those responsibilities. Now they can clearly and fully focus on the task at hand.
“We’re absolutely hungry to get back out there,” he continued. “We had a really odd weather month leading up to the Pac-12 Championships and couldn’t get in the kind of practice we needed, yet we were still in decent position for an upper division finish. Most of the guys got a solid competition round in for U.S. Open Local Qualifying (Monday) to get the rust off. They’re anxious to get out there and prove that the final round (at Pac-12’s) was a blip on the season.”
The four Buffs who have played in all 12 tournaments (38 rounds) this season, seniors Jason Burstyn andDerek Fribbs, sophomore David Oraee and freshman Philip Juel-Berg along with junior Johnny Hayes will represent Colorado in the regional. Only Fribbs, as an individual last year, and Hayes, with his former school Towson State in 2010, have played in the postseason before.
For the Buffaloes to have a chance to advance to the Finals, which run May 28-June 2 in Atlanta, its No. 1 golfer this season, Burstyn, needs to rebound from an uncharacteristic poor performance at the Pac-12s, where he just wasn’t able to get anything going; he tied for 66th with a 33-over score of 313. Edwards expects him to back to his old self.
“He was a little off, and he’s no different than most in that he needs to keep learning to adapt to different situations,” Edwards said of his team’s stroke average leader (72.8). “He normally does that, and in this case, I think he’s ready to move on. History shows that the few times he has played poorly, he’s bounced back to play really well. I don’t think it will be any different this week.”
As for the team to have overall success, he pointed to what the Buffaloes did when they won the Air Force Falcon Invitational last September and the Bandon Dunes Championship in March.
“We have to minimize our mistakes, the focus has to be on being as smart as possible,” he noted. “We haven’t seen the course yet, but I understand it’s very difficult. It’s an event where you don’t care if you finish first or fifth. We need to be patient, make good decisions and overall manage our individual games. When we’ve done that, we’ve played our best, and if we can do that here, we have a great shot at advancing to the Finals.”
“If we are disciplined in our decisions at all times we have a great shot. The five teams who make the least number of controllable mistakes will advance. This has more to do about us doing our job than anything else.”
Arkansas is the host school, with The Blessings Golf Club serving as the host course; BGC has a 7,251-yard, par-72 layout (37-35 configuration) that was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. It opened in 2004, and its rating (79.1) and slope (153) makes it one of the most difficult courses in the U.S., as its topography is characterized by hilly terrain creating numerous sidehill lies, dramatic elevation changes, forced carries over ravines and valleys, and large, undulating Bent grass greens, with Clear Creek in play on several holes. The fairways/roughs are Zoysia.
Colorado will tee off at 8:10 a.m. (MDT) on Thursday off the No. 10 tee, with the Buffs paired with Indiana (No. 11 seed) and UNC-Wilmington (No. 12). The field will be re-paired according to score after the first and second rounds, with all tee times between 8:20 and 10:20 a.m. for the second round (Friday) and between 7:50 and 9:50 a.m. for the final round (Saturday).
The top five teams and top two individuals who are not members of those squads will advance to the NCAA Championship Finals, which are scheduled for May 28-June 2 in Atlanta, Ga.
David Plati
Associate AD/Sports Information
University of Colorado Buffaloes
357 UCB / Fieldhouse Annex #50
Boulder, CO 80309-0357
303/492-5626 (office)
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CU men’s golfers in the middle of a 75-team pack at Stanford
Mar 29th
PALO ALTO, Calif. —
There are three top 10 teams and 11 in the top 75 competing here, with host and No. 10 Stanford the day one leader with an 8-under par 272 score. Five strokes separate the top six teams through 18 holes, with six strokes the difference between seventh and 12th; the Buffaloes are in the middle of that logjam, with a 3-over 283 score that is good for ninth place.
“A great day for golf, the weather conditions were perfect,” head coach Roy Edwards said. “That’s why the scores are so good and so bunched. Overall, we had a decent day as far as our team score was concerned. The only thing that prevented us from shooting lower, or under par, is that we had some mistakes, but even those were few and far between.
“For the most part we played smart, and mitigated the big numbers,” he added. “It’s so tightly bunched, we did what we should have done and didn’t get tripped up by the tough holes. There are a lot of good teams in this field and this is a great test for us at this stage of the season, one month out from the Pac-12 Championship.”
Senior Jason Burstyn and freshman Philip Juel-Berg paced the Buffaloes on Thursday, each recording 2-under par 68 scores on the 6,727-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Course layout which tied them for 13th place.
Starting on the No. 1 tee, Burstyn turned a 3-under 32 on the front nine, with the aide of an eagle on the par-5 No. 7 hole. On the back, he couldn’t get some birdie putts to fall and endured two bogeys to bring him back closer to par in the end.
Juel-Berg played a fantastic back nine, firing a 31; after turning at 2-over, he birdied Nos. 10, 13, 15 and 16 and finished with a team-best six birdies, along with nine pars two bogeys and a double. He, too, endured a patch where he scored those three holes over par but had a birdie among them. He now has scored 12 birdies in his last two rounds, including 10 in his last 27 holes.
“Jason and Philip were really solid most of the day; both had to overcome a tough stretch around the middle of their rounds,” Edwards said. “Philip had a pretty good fall, though struggled a bit to start the spring but has come back to play well the last month. He’s a good player and he keeps getting better and better … and is making fewer and fewer freshman mistakes.”
Senior Derek Fribbs carded a 3-over 73, scoring four birdies and eight pars, with five bogeys and a double, tying him for 61st. He opened strong, with two birdies in the first three holes, but then endured a bad patch where he played the next eight holes at 6-over.
Redshirt freshman Drew Trujillo fashioned a 4-over 74, tying him for 66th place, as he had three birdies, nine pars, five bogeys and a double. He started off with a birdie, but played the next six holes at 5-over before closing by playing the course at even par over his final 11 holes.
Sophomore David Oraee carded a 5-over 78, tying him for 76th. He had two birdies and 10 pars against five bogeys and a double for his day, as he continued struggling this week on the west coast; he was 23-over par for the UC-Irvine Anteater, very uncharacteristic for him, especially coming off a 1-under performance at Bandon Dunes three weeks ago.
Collectively, the five Buffs scored 18 birdies Thursday, one more than in the final round of the Anteater invite, which was one more than CU had in Monday’s two rounds. Big numbers were kept to a minimum in the first round here, as CU had just four double bogeys and nothing worse.
Nine players are tied for the individual lead with 4-under 66 scores; the most compelling of that group being San Jose State’s Cody Blick, who made the turn at 1-over but rallied to score six birdies en route to a 30 on the back nine.
The second round of the tournament is set for Friday, with the final round on Saturday. Play begins each day at 9 a.m. MDT off the No. 1 and 10 tees.
by CU SPORTS INFORMATION SERVICE!!!!!
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