Golfers Tied For Ninth At Pac-12 Championship

        CAREFREE, Ariz. — The University of Colorado men's golf team reached the midway point tied for ninth here Friday in the 64th Annual (and) final Pac-12 Championship.
 
        Play was suspended due to lightning in the area at 6:37 p.m. local time, with 18 players from six teams falling just short of completing their second rounds; they have 30 holes combined to finish.  When action was called, No. 10 Washington was in the lead, with a 13-over par team score. No. 24 Oregon held second place at 21-over, while host and No. 3 Arizona State was 23-over, as the Sun Devils did finish with a team total of 733.  No. 29 Stanford (737) and No. 21 California (738) also completed play and rounded out the top five.
 
        The No. 66 Buffaloes are tied with No.  53 Utah in ninth place; CU finished play with a 50-over par 760 score, while the Utes were also 50-over but have three players that need to finish four holes between them to polish off the second round.
 
        The Buffs were tied for seventh with No. 30 UCLA after the first round with a 15-over 370 score, as No. 10 Washington was the only team under par (349, -6), owning a 10-stroke lead over Stanford.  CU started a bit slow, rallied but lost seven strokes over the last three holes to drop from fourth. Still, CU had just seven holes worse than bogey, the sixth-fewest at the time.
 
        But a horrific start in the second round sent the Buffs spiraling down the in the standings.  CU had 22 birdies in the morning, tied for the second-most, but didn't record its first one in the afternoon until its 35th hole; up until that point, the top five players had seven bogeys and four double bogeys, quickly matching the first round overage of 15-over.  CU's playing partners weren't immune to the windy conditions, as both Stanford and Arizona State were both 8-over in the same stretch.  CU managed just 10 birdies the second 18 holes, not that any team is really racking them up due to gusting winds that plagued most of the day.
 
        "Generally, just a very tough day, but the guys really battled though," CU head coach Roy Edwards said.  "A combination of a very challenging golf course and the (windy) conditions.  We just made too many mistakes.  However, with 10 rounds still left to count there is a lot of movement expected ahead.  A good round tomorrow will get us back into it."
 
        Colorado needs to finish third or higher to meet the minimum criteria of a .500 record to qualify for the NCAA postseason.  At present, CU is 27 strokes out of that position.  Can CU improve that much?  "Difficult, but not impossible," to quote Rocco from The Godfather, Part II.
 
        Junior Dylan McDermott turned in CU's top effort through 36 holes, with his 73-76—149 scorecard tying him for 23rd; he had the Buffs' best score in each round Friday on the 7,203-yard, par-71 Desert Forest Golf Club course layout.  He had a steady day for the most part, with six birdies, 20 pars and nine bogeys, but his only big number was a costly one.  He suffered a quadruple bogey on the 467-yard, par-4 18th hole to end his morning round, otherwise he was in position to join just six players who recorded opening rounds in the 60s.
 
        Freshman Ty Holbrook, competing for his first time as a designated scorer and is tied for 39th after fashioning a 74-78—152 (10-over par) effort; that also has him tied for eighth among the 15 freshmen in the event.  He led the Buffs with nine birdies, which tied for the second-most in the 72-man field, but he had perhaps the most rollercoaster day of anyone on Friday.  He had 12 pars, 12 bogeys, two double and a triple to go with his birds, and it equated to two 2's, six 3's, 14 4's, 11 5's, two 6's and a seven penciled in his cards; that included a 12-hole stretch between rounds where he didn't have par, yet was only 3-over par in that span.
 
        Holbrook had perhaps the most diverse inaugural round for a first-time scorer, or for any scorer at any time for that matter.  He most likely had the fewest pars – two – for a sub-75 score in school history, but those were countered by eight birdies which were the most in the field in the morning round.  And four of those he recorded on the top 10 toughest holes among those first 18.  He had six bogeys and a double that eventually led him to a 3-over 74.
 
        Juniors Justin Biwer and Tucker Clark along with sophomore Hunter Swanson are all tied for 45th with 11-over 153 totals. 
 
        Biwer attained his score with rounds of 74 and 79 – the 79 was the highest score in his collegiate career; he currently has played 106 rounds without a score in the 80s, the second-longest streak in school history.  He spent most of the first round hovering between 1- and 2-over par, until a late bogey on No. 17 led to the 3-over 74.  In the second round, he recorded back-to-back double bogeys on Nos. 2 and 3, but then played the next 11 holes even.  A triple bogey on No. 15, just the third of his career (out of 1,908 holes) played the biggest role in his recording the 79.
 
        Biwer did accomplish what he seems to have done all spring – play some of the toughest holes the best.  In the morning, he had one of only seven birdies on the 551-yard, par-4 7th and one of just eight on the 171-yard, par-3 3rd.  In the afternoon, he had one of six on the 464-yard, par-4 5th. Overall, he had four birdies and tied for the team lead in pars with 21.
 
        Clark was even through 14 but closed with a 3-over 74, then also recorded a 79 the next 18 to reach his 153 score.  He had five birdies and 19 pars on his day, with nine bogeys, two doubles and a triple.  He was the only Buff to play the par-3s under par in either round, doing so at minus-1 in the afternoon.  That birdie came on the 231-yard, par-3 8th hole – the only birdie in the second round on the hole in the field, though six players need to include it when they finish up first thing Saturday.
 
        Swanson had a 75-78 day, with five birdies and 19 pars opposite nine bogeys, two doubles and a triple.  He had a rough start, standing 5-over through seven, but played the last 11 holes in round one at 1-under.  The second trip around Desert Forest started similarly, as he was 1-over after seven, with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 9 and 10 getting back to just plus-2.  But a triple bogey on the par-3 12th essentially wiped those out.  He was 3-under on the par-5's, which tied for the sixth-best in the field. 
 
        Freshman Brandon Knight is tied for 60th after posting a 78-80—158 score (16-over par).  A good portion of his overage can be traced to four holes, where he recorded one quintuple, one triple and two double bogeys, those all accounting for 11-over.  Otherwise, he had three birdies and tied for the team-high with 21 pars.  His only birdie in the second round came on the 435-yard, par-4 15th – just one of three on the hole the second time around by the field.  He's tied for 11th in the freshman standings.
 
        Individually, there was a three-way tie atop the standings with 1-under par 141's by Stanford's Michael Thorbjornsen, Arizona State's Wenyi Ding and Cal's Ethan Fang.  Washington's Petr Hruby was even with three holes to play.
 
        The second round will resume at 9:30 a.m. MST Saturday, with the third round set to commence at 11:30 a.m.  Since CU is tied for ninth, the Buffaloes won't know if they will be paired with the seventh- and eighth-place teams or the 11th- and 12th-place ones until the second round is completed; that also will affect CU's starting time, as the last three won't tee off until 12:36 p.m.; either way the Buffs will start on No. 10.  The fourth and final round is slated for Sunday.
 
NOTES: Mostly sunny skies ruled the day, with the morning round played in temperatures in the mid-to-upper 60s which warmed into the low-70s in the afternoon; but the winds started gusting late in the first round to 16 miles per hour and stayed persistent, gusting up to 25 mph at times … The last Pac-12's are definitely stacked, with seven top 30 and 11 top 66 in the rankings in the field; only USC (ranked 104th) is outside the group … Arizona, Oregon and Washington all have three players needing to finish six holes between them; USC, Utah and Washington State have three that need to finish four combined … The Buffs were paired with No. 29 Stanford, the defending champion, and No. 3 Arizona State on Friday … The average score for Friday's 144 rounds was 76.03, it was 74.79 in the morning and ballooned to 77.30 in the afternoon) … Overall, just three players are under par with one other matching it … By contrast 34 players, or nearly half the field, are 10-over or higher … There were eight rounds scored in the 60's (six in the a.m., two afterward with one player remaining who could join when he finishes) … The Buffs are fifth in birdies (32; Washington leads with 40), and are ninth in pars (112, Oregon State has the most with 128) … This is the sixth par-71 course the Buffs are playing in out of 11 stroke play tournaments this season (and one par-70; fewer par-5s, fewer chances for eagles, of which there were only six total on Friday) … When looking at the "jumbo" numbers count, it's not like CU is totally out of whack compared to the field: it has 17 (11 doubles, four triples, one quadruple and one quintuple bogey); Oregon has the fewest (6), followed by Washington (12), Arizona State (13), Cal and Stanford (14), Oregon State (16), Arizona (17), UCLA (17), Utah (22), USC (23) and Washington State (28) … Colorado is playing the par-4's the sixth-best at 45-over (Oregon tops the list at plus-31), the par-5's tied for seventh (2-over, UW is minus-13) but the par-3's last (19-over, UW heads that list as well at 2-over) … Daniel O'Loughlin (2017-21) owns the school mark of 123 rounds without shooting an 80 or higher, which spanned his entire CU career; Biwer has the only other streak over 100 … CU alums, twins Jeremy and Yannik Paul, are members at Desert Forest, but both are competing on their respective tours and doing quite well.  Yannik is in the ISPS Handa Championship in Japan (DP World Tour), and through two rounds he is tied for the lead (65-65—130, -10); Jeremy is in Arlington, Texas playing in the Veritex Bank Championship (Korn Ferry Tour); he was right on the cutline at 7-under with one hole left to go when play there was also suspended.   The twins did provide some advice to the coaches in advance of the championship.