Watts Leads the Utes After Day 1 of Pac-12 Championships
SAMMAMISH, Wash. – Utah men's golf opened up competition at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships on Monday at the Aldarra Golf Club, turning in a team score of 735 (+25) to place them in ninth after two rounds of play.
"It wasn't the day we had in mind but Braxton was fantastic for us today. He didn't play his best, but did an incredible job saving pars and making key putts to keep his round going," head coach Garrett Clegg said. "Blake, Tristian and Javier all had different struggles during their rounds. They didn't play bad golf, but just couldn't seem to convert for birdies on the par fives or had a few too many mistakes they weren't able to recover from."
The team posted a first-round score of 373 (+18) and was led by Blake Tomlinson and Braxton Watts, who each made the turn at level par and finished one over on the back to shoot a 72 (+1).
Javier Barcos followed shooting a 75 (+4) and endured a roller coaster back nine, penciling two birdies, two bogeys and two doubles. Tristian Mandur also shot a 75 and had a strong start to his first round, collecting three birdies through the first seven holes and bogeying the ninth to make the turn at two under par.
Rounding out the Utah lineup was Oscar Maxfield and Martin Leon. Making his first start of the season, Maxfield posted a 79 (+8) and had two birdies in his round. Leon finished a shot back of Maxfield, turning in an 80 (+9).
Utah climbed the leaderboard a couple spots in the second round, cutting 11 strokes to shoot a 363 (+8). Tristian Mandur was on fire to start his second round posting four birdies through the first five holes and would pick up another two birdies on the back to go along with five bogeys and shoot 70 (-1). It was the lone round under par on the day for the Utes and Mandur currently sits in a tie for 28th (145, +3).
Tomlinson penciled one birdie on the back nine of his second round that would be leveled with a bogey three holes later and finish with a 73 (+2) and also sit in a tie for 28th.
Watts played consistent in his second round, picking up a pair of birdies on his way to his second 72 of the day and finish in a tie for 16th (144, +2) to lead the Utes.
Barcos carded the second lowest second round score for Utah, shooting an even par 71 with five birdies and five bogeys. Barcos is tied for 34th (146, +4) entering the third round of play.
Rounding out the Utes was Maxfield and Leon. Maxfield shot three shots better than his first round, but had a tough finish bogeying five of the last seven holes to shoot a 76 (+5) as Leon posted an 80 (+9) for the second time on Monday. Maxfield will start the third round in a tie for 63rd (155, +13) and Leon will begin in 71st (160, +18).
"On this course, you need to take advantage of holes 10, 11 and 12. That is the easiest stretch on the course and we didn't play it the best in both rounds. Hopefully tomorrow we can come out and be ready to play some good golf," Clegg said. "We have a lot of golf to play still and we are excited to improve on what we did today and come out firing tomorrow!"
Up Next
The 2022 Pac-12 Men's Golf Championships will continue tomorrow at 11 a.m. MT as Utah will join California and Oregon State starting on the 10th tee.
LIVE SCORING
Live scoring for the Pac-12 Championships is available on GolfStat.com. Fans can also follow along on social media (Twitter: @UtesGolf | Instagram: @UtesGolf).