Buff Golfers Open In 11th At Pac-12 Championships

               PULLMAN, Wash. — The University of Colorado men's golf team had a disappointing first day here Monday in the 56th annual Pac-12 Championships, and like a year ago, is looking at a significant but doable rally with two rounds yet to play.

               No. 16 Southern California leads at the midway point with a 1-under par 699 team score, as the Trojans used the tourney's best single round score, a 6-under 344, to vault into first place.  No. 3 Arizona State is six back at 705, with No. 9 Stanford and host Washington State tied for third (710); No. 12 Washington rounds out the top five at 716.

               Colorado, which spent most of the day jumping back and forth between 10th and 11th place, settled in the latter with a 739 score, or 39-over par.

               The Buffaloes got off to a miserable start, with the five scorers 20-over par on the front none, before settling down a bit on the back side, playing those at 4-over.  But the team score of 24-over par 374 had the Buffaloes mired deep down the standings in 11th place; ASU held the first round lead with a 4-over 354, with USC one shot back.

              The six CU players combined to play the front at 31-over, with just four birdies and 17 pars to counter 16 bogeys, seven doubles and a quintuple bogey.  The Buffs certainly weren't alone; UCLA's six also were 31-over on that front nine and the field averaged 18-over, with USC the best at 8-over.  While breezy conditions early on made the first nine holes a little more difficult, the second time around in the afternoon, the Buffs cut that overage in half (16-over, plus-12 by the scorers).

              “We didn't play well, that's obvious,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said.  “The golf course was set up really hard, and the easiest way to sum it up is that we just didn't execute our strategy factoring in that it was going to be that difficult.  It's a disappointing start to the tournament, but we can hopefully draw upon what we did last year.”

              Colorado was in a similar position, in 10th at the midway point in 2014, but rallied to post the second-best score over the last to rounds in riding that effort to a fourth place finish.

              “We have the same six guys competing here that did that last year, so they know we can do it,” Edwards said.  “We just have to come out fighting and scrapping tomorrow to get back into it.”

               Sophomore Yannik Paul had CU's best effort Monday, as he recorded a 72-71—143 scorecard on the 7,257-yard, par-70 Palouse Ridge Golf Club course layout.   That 3-over effort has him tied for 22nd, as he recorded a team-best six birdies with 23 pars against five bogeys and two doubles; unfortunately, one of those bogeys came on his 36th hole of the day otherwise he would have matched par.  The six birds did tie for the 12th-most in the field.

              Junior Philip Juel-Berg turned in a 74-73-147 performance (7-over), which has him tied for 41st at the midway point.  He recorded a team-best 25 pars, tied for 10th-most in the field, and scored three birdies while having six bogeys and two doubles on the unhappy side of par.  He had just one bad stretch Monday, coming in his first round and right after he scored a birdie, he had back-to-back doubles on Nos. 6 and 7.  He closed his day with nine straight pars on the back nine.

               Sophomore Jeremy Paul, CU's stroke average leader (71.7), had some early trouble, as he was 4-over after six holes; he played even the rest of the way for a 76, which he paired with a 74 in the afternoon for a 10-over 150, which has him tied for 54th.  

               Sophomore Ethan Freeman had a pair of 75s for which also gave him a 10-over 150, thus tying him for 54th with Paul.  His rounds were nearly similar as he finished the day with five birdies, 18 pars, 11 bogeys and two doubles, playing the front nine at 4-over and the back at plus-1 both times.

               Senior David Oraee fashioned a 77-75—152 score for 36 holes (12-over), tying him for 59th.  He was 3-over after three holes to start his day, and then closed out with two bogeys and double as that seven-hole stretch accounted for much of his overage.  He had just two birdies and 22 pars to open his play here, against nine bogeys and two doubles.

              Junior Drew Trujillo had a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” day.  After opening with a 15-over 85, which included a three-hole span where he scored a 10 on a par-5 and was 8-over, he came back undaunted in the afternoon with a 2-over 72, capped off by an eagle on the 551-yard, par-5 18th.  The 13-stroke improvement from one round to the next tied for the third-best all-time at Colorado in a league championship event, tying the best in a Pac-12 meet (Yannik Paul had a second round 82 and a third round 69 last year).