Golfers Open In 14th At Stanford's "The Goodwin"

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team turned in an even-par opening round effort here Thursday, and finds itself in 14th place but just eight strokes out of the top five after one round of Stanford's "The Goodwin."
 
Host and No. 14 Stanford grabbed the first day lead with a 12-under team score of 268, with No. 51 SMU two back at 10-under 270.  No. 9 Washington and No. 11 Georgia Tech are tied for third at 9-under 271, with No. 47 Nevada and No. 57 BYU rounding out the top five at 8-under 272. 
 
The 28-team field was split into two halves; the Buffaloes were fourth among the 14 teams that competed in the morning, finishing with an even-par score of 280.  Colorado closed strong, playing the last three holes at 5-under par to get back down to even; among the first seven teams to tee off, CU jumped in and out of the lead early when it fluctuated between 1- and 2-under par over the first five holes.  CU dipped down to 14th when 10 schools turned in subpar rounds in the afternoon session.
 
The 280 team score was CU's fifth even-par effort of the season, along with eight subpar rounds out of 22 total this season.
 
Freshman Jack Holland matched his collegiate career gross score of 67, as the 3-under par effort on the 6,742-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Course layout has him tied for 16th.  He recorded a team-high six birdies, with 10 pars opposite one bogey and one double for his round.  After opening with three pars, he sandwiched four birdies around that lone double to make the turn at 2-under 33 and then played the back nine at 1-under.  His six birds are tied for sixth-most in the 147-player field.
 
Freshman Justin Biwer is tied for 40th after carding a 1-under 69; he had five birdies and nine pars against four bogeys.  He opened his day with a birdie on No. 1 and would remain in the red all rounds, bouncing back and forth between 1- and 2-under par.  It was the sixth time in eight events that he opened with a subpar round, as he owns a team-best 70.1 first round average, and was his team-best 16th round under par out of 22 (one shy of CU's frosh mark).
 
Junior Kristoffer Max and freshman Dylan McDermott are both tied for 87th after firing 2-over 72, getting to that number in the exact same way: three birdies and 11 pars with three bogeys and a double (with the same score on 12 of the holes). 
 
Freshman Frederik Eisenbeis is tied for 115th, as he fashioned a 4-over 74; he recorded a team-high 14 pars with a birdie and two bogeys – an early triple bogey 7 on the par-4 6th hole was blanketed by eight pars on the front side.  The 14 pars are tied for the second-most in the field.
 
"A good start for us for sure," head coach Roy Edwards said.  "We had a really nice round from Jack Holland; heh has been showing some amazing flashes of great golf and he put it together today.  Justin did really well, too, another subpar round considering he wasn't at his usual best off the tee.  All five players were in the mix to count (toward the team score) all day, which is very important.  Kris and Dylan did a nice job of making some late birdies."
 
Stanford's Barclay Brown and San Jose State's Kristopher Stiles are tied for the individual lead with 6-under 64s.  Brown has four birdies and an eagle, while Stiles had two eagles and six birdies but also had two bogeys and a double.
 
The second round is slated for Friday; the Buffs will again be paired with Pac-12 rivals California and Washington State and will tee off on No. 10 starting at 1:10 p.m. MDT.  The third and final round is set for Saturday morning.
 

NOTES: The Buffaloes entered this week ranked 93rd by GolfStat and 95th by Golfweek … Seven Pac-12 Conference teams are competing here; CU entered with a 1-6 record to date against league foes, and are competing against Oregon, Stanford and UCLA for the first time in 2021-22 … All seven teams ranked in the nation's top 50 played in the afternoon … McDermott hails from nearby Granite Bay, approximately 120 miles northwest of the Bay Area …  The average score for the 72 morning rounds was 72.13; for the 75 afternoon rounds, it was 70.27; overall for the first round, it settled in at 71.18 … The Buffs played the par-3s well Thursday, tied for first in the field at 4-under par; they played the par-4s 23rd-best (+16) and the par-5's tied for the seventh-best (8-under) … CU is tied for seventh in pars with 55 and is 12th in birdies (18) … Jeremy Paul owns the frosh mark for most subpar rounds in a season when he had 17 in 2013-14, just one of several frosh marks he set that season that Biwer is in hot pursuit of.