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Golfers Open In 22nd At The Prestige

Feb 15, 2021
Paterson led the entire field in birdies Monday with eight.

PALM DESERT, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team had an up-and-down kind of opening round here Monday in the 21st annual version of The Prestige at PGA West, the first major tournament of the 2020-21 season for the Buffaloes.
 
No teams are ranked yet, but this will likely prove to be one of the stronger fields of the year.  Arizona State leads after 18 holes with an 8-under 276, with Pepperdine (281), North Carolina (282) and Arizona (283) also all under par.  SMU is in the fifth spot with a 1-under 285.  Several schools expected to be near the top of the rankings had their struggles in their first rounds of the season.
 
The Buffaloes, eventually settling in at 10-over par with a 294 score which landed them in 22nd place out of 24 teams, but are just six strokes out of the top 10. 
 
Junior John Paterson turned in a 1-under par 70 on the 7,100-yard, par-71 Greg Norman Course at PGA West, as he led the entire 120-player field in birdies with eight.  He opened par-double-bogey to start at 3-over after three, but bounced right back with three straight birdies to get back to even.  He would then fluctuate between 1-over and 1-under over his final 12 holes, finishing with a bird on No. 18 to get it into red numbers for his final score and end the day tied for 16th.  He played the 11 par-4 holes at 2-under, tied for fourth-best on the day.
 
Sophomore Adam Matteson recorded the Buffs' next best score, a 3-over 74, as he had two birdies and a team-high 12 pars in tying for 69th.  He played the last five holes at 1-under, recovering from a double bogey on the 216-yard, par-3 13th.
 
Senior Daniel O'Loughlin is tied for 83rd after carding a 4-over 75.  After birdying No. 9 to make the turn at 1-over, but that was his last of two birdies on the day as he had six pars and three bogeys on the back nine.  O'Loughlin has a chance to set CU's all-time scoring average, with Monday's round the 99th of his Colorado career.
 
Junior Kristoffer Max also shot a 4-over 75 with a peak-and-valley kind of day.  He was even through five, played the next four holes at 5-over, then opened the back nine with three straight birdies.  A double on the par-4 14th derailed him a bit, though played the last four even.  His five birdies tied for the eighth-most in the field, and also tied for the third-best on the three par-5 holes, playing those at 2-under.
 
Senior Victor Bjorlow, who is playing in the No. 1 position for the Buffaloes, had some struggles in finishing with a 6-over 77.  He bogeyed four of his first seven holes before recording his first – and only – birdie in the round on 617-yard, par-5 8th hole, and then closed his day from there with seven pars and three bogeys.
 
In sort of a statistical oddity, Colorado posted the third-most birdies Monday with 18, but had the fewest pars with 44.  The Buffs also didn't have many big numbers, just four double bogeys and one triple.
 
"We obviously didn't play like we wanted to overall, but you'd rather do it this way by making a lot of birdies because it puts yourself in position to go low down the road in a future round," said CU head coach Roy Edwards.  "We need to tighten a few things up in our short game and eliminate mistakes, some we can attribute to rust.  The good things we did, we did really well, but the mistakes we made cost us too much.  The guys know it, we're not too alarmed, it's just what happened today.  Daniel and Victor were off, and that won't happen very often, so I expect them to recover quickly."
 
The Prestige at PGA West Invitational.  In conjunction with the 24-team event, there is also a special competition for individuals that are not on the school's top five; 17 teams in the meet and three others have entered a total of 44 individuals in this event.  In his first collegiate round, CU redshirt freshman Canon Olkowski is tied for 23rd after firing an even-par 72; standing at 3-over par with three holes to play, he finished his round with three straight birdies on the Coral Mountain Golf Club course also in Palm Desert.  The 7,145-yard layout ended with a par-5, a par-3 and another par-5, as Olkowski had four birdies and 11 pars for his round.  Pepperdine's Derek Hitchner leads this even with a 7-under 65 on the strength of seven birdies and 11 pars.  "He did a nice job battling, and it's always good to see a player finish like he did in his first-ever round," Edwards said.
 
The second round of both events are set for Tuesday, with the third and final round on Wednesday.  The Buffaloes will be paired again with host Wyoming and Northwestern and will start off at 8:40 a.m. on the number 10 tee.  "We're excited to go out there, play early and post a good score," Edwards said.
 
NOTES: All participants (coaches and players) had to have a negative PCR test for COVID-19 within 72 hours of competition … With nine Pac-12 Conference schools in the field, it will could also provide an early glimpse at who might be among the favorites for the league title come April … This is the 11th time CU is competing in this event, the first time since the 2012-13 season; it started in the fall of 2000 for the top academic schools in Division.  CU's best finish here was second in 2001 … The Buffs opened the 2020-21 season last Thursday with a two-day creative dual against host Wyoming, with CU defeating the Cowboys, 88-64 … Monday's average score for the 120 participants in the main event was 73.17 and 72.45 in the individual side tourney.
 

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
  T16.  John Paterson  35-35—70
  T69.  Adam Matteson  37-37—74
  T83.  Daniel O'Loughlin  36-39—75
  T83.  Kristoffer Max  40-35—75
T103.  Victor Bjorlow  38-39—77
 THE PRESTIGE / INDIVIDUAL
  T23.  Canon Olkowski  38-34—72

 

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
   1.  David Puig, Arizona State  32-32—64
   2.  Lachlan Barker, Iowa State  33-34—67
 T2.  Jacob Westberg, UC Davis  34-33—67
 T2.  Joey Vrzich, Pepperdine  34-33—67
 T5.  Puwit Anupansuebsai, S.D. State  34-34—68
 T5.  Chase Sienkiewicz, Arizona  35-33—68

 
 TEAM STANDINGS

  1.  Arizona State  276
  2.  Pepperdine  281
  3.  North Carolina  282
  4.  Arizona  283
  5.  SMU  285
  6.  Marquette  286
  7.  Nevada  287
  7.  Southern California  287
  7.  UC Davis  287
10.  California  288
11.  SMU  288
11.  Iowa State  288
11.  TCU  289
11.  Long Beach State  289
15.  San Diego State  290
16.  Wyoming  291
16.  Northwestern  291
16.  Oregon State  291
16.  Cal Poly  291
20.  Stanford  292
21.  Texas Tech  293
22.  COLORADO  294
23.  Denver  297
24.  UCLA  299