Golfers Struggle At The Prestige
LA QUINTA, Calif. - Darkness suspended play here in the third annual "Prestige," but the University of Colorado men's golf team had no illusions where it stood following the first day of competition.
TCU held the lead after one round, firing a team score of 284, or four-under par, good for a two-shot lead over Cal-Irvine. Colorado shot its highest team round in quite some time, a 311, as CU had to count a 79 and 87 in the morning round and was last out of the 18 teams in the field. The tournament is comprised of the nation's top academic, golf-playing institutions.
Colorado did complete its afternoon rounds before play was called with half the field needing to complete anywhere between one and five holes. The Buffs reduced their team score to 292, which would have been the morning's fourth best score.
CU's undoing? The tough, 172-yard, par-3 No. 16 hole that featured nothing but rock between tee and green, as a pair of Buffs recorded double-digit scores. Combined with senior captain Stephen Carroll losing his normally sound putting stroke, and it added up to a bad round for the Buffaloes on the 6,841-yad, par 72 La Quinta Resort Mountain Course at PGA West.
Frosh Edward McGlasson scored a 10 on No. 16 and finished the morning with an 87, while Blake Moore carded a 90 in his first collegiate round, which included a 12 on the par-3 the Buffs grew to hate. But both bounced back in the afternoon; McGlasson shaved 17 strokes off his morning score and put up a 2-under 70, while Moore rallied with an 80. McGlasson's improvement marked the second best turnaround between rounds in school history; John Nyuli shot a second round 90 and a final round 72 at the 1990 Miami-Doral Invitational.
Pacific's Matt Hansen carded a five-under 67 to lead the morning round, but CU's third frosh competing here, Derek O'Neill, was tied for 10th after the first round with a 1-under 71. He put up a 73 in the afternoon for a 144 total.
"That experience was a bit devastating for the young freshmen," CU head coach Mark Simpson said "It was early in their rounds, and to shoot a 10 and 12 set them back, as it would most anyone. But they proved resilient, and obviously, Edward coming back in the afternoon with a 70 was strong, and a good indication of his character."
"Derek got his game going, striking the ball a little bit better and his short game was in good shape, so he's gaining some confidence," Simpson added. "Steve missed a lot of short putts in the morning, something like eight inside eight feet, very unusual for him. But he came back with 23 putts in the afternoon, so he fixed the problem."
The Buffs will turn right around and return to California in a week, this time traveling to Palm Desert to play in "The Prestige," a tournament for the top academic golfing programs.
Buffalo Individuals
(individual places not determined)
Derek O'Neill........... 71-73--144
Stephen Carroll......... 79-71--150
Jeff Hanson............. 74-78--152
Edward McGlasson........ 87-70--157
Blake Moore............. 90-80--170
Team Scores
1. TCU............... 284
2. UC-Irvine......... 286
3. Pacific........... 291
4. UCLA.............. 292
4. Washington........ 292
6. UC-Davis.......... 293
7. Vanderbilt........ 295
8. Stanford.......... 298
8. Yale.............. 298
10. Pepperdine........ 299
11. Kansas............ 300
12. Rice.............. 301
12. San Diego......... 301
14. Air Force......... 302
15. UC-San Diego...... 303
16. Oregon............ 304
16. UC-Santa Barbara.. 304
18. COLORADO.......... 311