Golfers Slip Into 10th Place Finish In San Diego

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team had an early three-hole stretch do it in here Wednesday, as the Buffaloes slipped from third into a 10th place finish in the 14th Annual Lamkin San Diego Classic.
 
UCLA, ranked 118th by GolfStat, hung on to its second round lead in winning the title with a 4-over par 868, while No. 67 Nevada held on to second at 10-over 874.  One stroke here or there made the difference in the second-through-fifth spots, as Washington (875), co-host San Diego (876) and Colorado State (877) rounded out the top five.
 
Colorado, ranked No. 84 by GolfStat, shot an 11-over par 299 for the third and final round and finished with a 20-over 884 total.  CU entered the final 18 holes tied for third, and its scorers were 1-under through two holes, but played the next three (Nos. 3 through 5) at 8-over par and never could recover.  When all was said and done, CU was at the tail end of nine teams separated by just 10 strokes.
 
Conditions were tough for the second straight day, with heavy rains overnight that didn't end until 7 a.m., with temperatures hovering in the low 50's and winds again gusting at times up to 20 miles per hour.  The average score on Tuesday was a shade over 77, on Wednesday, a shade under 76.
 
"We had a rough day with our wedges and putting," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "We have a team of good competitors so they actually did a nice job of managing the struggles in that part of the game, so that was encouraging."
 
While CU led the field in pars with 166, the Buffs as a unit scored just 33 birdies, far down the line (16th).  They're tough to come by without solid wedge and putting play as Edwards referenced; in fact, Colorado had just eight birdies in the final round after making 16 on day one.
               
Senior Daniel O'Loughlin tied for 11th individually, finishing with a 1-over 217 total for 54 holes.  He wrapped things up with a 1-over 73, the best effort by a Buffalo on Wednesday on the 7,033-yard, par-72 San Diego Country Club course, as he had two birdies and 13 pars against three bogeys.  He played the par-4 holes (30 in total) at even for the event, tied for fourth-best in the 112-man field; he also tied for the most pars with 37.
 
Junior John Paterson tied for 23rd, fashioning a 2-over 74 in the final round to finish with a 5-over 221.  He had three birdies and 10 pars with five bogeys, three of the latter on the first five holes before he settled down and played the rest of the way 1-under.
 
Senior Victor Bjorlow tied for 45th after he carded a 5-over 77 for a 224 overall score, or 8-over par.  He had 13 pars and five bogeys to finish up here, with his 36 pars overall tying for fourth-best in the field.
 
Redshirt freshman Canon Olkowski, who came in as CU's stroke average leader, finished with a 5-over 77, which gave him a 9-over 225 for the week, tying him for 49th.  He started strong with two birdies, his only ones of the round; he did tie O'Loughlin and Paterson for the team-high in birdies for the event with eight. 
 
Sophomore Adam Matteson, playing in his first collegiate event in his hometown, rebounded from a tough second round to pare nine strokes off that score, as he closed with a 3-over 75 that tied him for 80th with a final tally of 16-over 232.  Though opening and closing with a bogey, in-between he was 1-over with a birdie, 13 pars and two other bogeys.
 
UCLA's Devin Bling shot a final round 75 but managed to hold on to medalist honors with a 4-under 212 score, edging San Diego's Ryan Bisharat by a single stroke.  Forty players finished within 10 strokes of the lead.
 
"It's just a matter of time and belief with this group before we really break through," Edwards said.  "We had a great opportunity today but just weren't able to take advantage of it and get it done." 
 
The Buffaloes will return to action in two weeks, for their fourth tournament of the season to participate in the University of Arizona's National Invitational Tournament in Tucson.
 
NOTES:  The Buffaloes finished fifth in par-3 scoring (plus-16), ninth in par-4 scoring (34-over) and eighth in par-5 scoring (minus-11) … O'Loughlin took over the team lead in stroke average, owning a 72.33 for nine rounds; Olkowski entered as the team leader and slipped a bit to 73.00, also for nine rounds … O'Loughlin ran his school record without a round in the 80s to 107 consecutive rounds … The average score for the tournament (335 total rounds) was 75.56.

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