Golfers Finish Seventh At Alister Mackenzie

               FAIRFAX, Calif. — The University of Colorado men’s golf team hoped to rally and move up the standings here Tuesday, but wound up slipping one spot into a seventh place finish as the 12th Annual Alister Mackenzie Invitational came to a close.

               Host California, the highest ranked team in the field at No. 21 in the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin computer rankings, won its own tournament for the sixth straight year and for the ninth time overall, edging second round leader and No. 53 Arizona State by two shots.  The Bears had a 13-under par team score of 839 to 841 for the Sun Devils, who had owned a two-shot lead heading into the final round.

               No. 51 Oregon State finished third (844), followed by UC Davis (849) and Pepperdine (853).  Colorado, ranked No. 29 nationally, just missed a top five finish with an 855 (3-over) total, as No. 30 San Diego State was wedged in-between the Waves and the Buffaloes.

               The course, which played tougher in Monday’s second round when wind conditions picked up, was even more of a challenge Tuesday.  The average score per round jumped from 70.5 in the first to 72.9 for the second, and then ballooned to a 75.3 for the third; 21 players out of the 80 in the field turned in better final round scores than they had in the second, but all 21 were over par on their second 18.  A combination of swirling winds and tough pin placements Tuesday led to the higher scores.

               Sophomore Yannik Paul, the individual leader through two rounds, struggled on the greens in final 18 as he carded a 6-over par 77 to finish with a 210 total, or 3-under par, on the 6,734-yard, par-71 Meadow Club course layout.  He slipped into a sixth-place tie in the standings, six shots out of the top spot, when all was said and done.  He did tie for the lead in eagles here with two, each coming on Monday, but could he could only muster a pair of birdies with eight pars against eight bogeys to close things out.   He was also second in par-5 scoring, playing them at 7-under par for the tourney.

               His older identical twin, Jeremy, finished with a 1-over 72 for a 2-under 211 score, tying him for ninth place; he wrapped things up with four birdies, nine pars and five bogeys.  He led the entire field with 15 birdies, and he too played the par-5s well (6-under, tied for ninth) and also tied for eighth with two other Buffaloes on the par-4s (1-over).

               Senior David Oraee followed his victory in CU’s Mark Simpson Invitational two weeks ago with a tie for 20th, his 13th top 20 finish of his career.  He shot a 1-over 72 Tuesday on the strength of three birdies and 11 pars against four bogeys to finish with a 1-over 214; his 11 birdies were the second-most on the team here and like both Pauls, he did not score worse than bogey on any hole all tournament.

               Junior Philip Juel-Berg tied for 44th after fashioning a 4-over 75 for a 54-hole score of 220, or 7-over par; he finished with two birdies, 11 pars, four bogeys and a double, and for the meet, had a team-best 34 pars.  He and Oraee matched Jeremy Paul with solid play on the par-4s, playing the combined 33 of them at 1-over.

               Sophomore Ethan Freeman never could get much going here, as he finished with a 10-over 81 for a 22-over 235 score overall, which kept him in the same slot he started the day out – in 78th place.  He had 11 pars to counter four bogeys and three doubles.

               “It definitely was not our day today, that pretty much sums it all up,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said.  “Everyone is pretty disappointed on how our round went today, but it will motivate us for our last event.  It’s already behind us.”

                It’s not like Colorado had a terrible day in relation to the other 15 teams, as the Buffs did post the eighth best score in the final round, and were edged by two teams by a combined three strokes.  But it wasn’t what Edwards and his team has come to expect. 

               “It wasn’t to our standards,” he lamented.  “Everybody felt pretty going into today, and we felt that if we could have played a good-to-great round today, we could have won the tournament.  But we didn’t and we’ll move on from that.”

               Arizona State’s Max Rottluff, who entered the final round one back of Paul, captured medalist honors with a 9-under par 204 score; he closed things out with a 1-under 70, one of just six rounds under par on the day.