CAREFREE, Ariz. - No. 11 WASHINGTON holds the team lead and defending champion Michael Thorbjornsen of STANFORD owns a share of the individual lead following a challenging and suspended opening day of the 2024 Pac-12 Men's Golf Championships at Desert Forest Golf Club on Friday.

 

After building a 10-shot lead as the only team under par through Friday's opening 18 holes, UW's advantage ballooned to as many as 22 shots early in the second round. However, the desert's afternoon winds - sustained at 20 mph with gusts upwards of 30 mph on the par-71, 7,203-yard track - helped bring the Huskies into the black and back to the field.

 

The second round was suspended at 6:37 p.m. due to lightning with Washington (13-over) owning an eight-shot cushion over No. 24 OREGON (21-over) and 10-shot edge on host No. 3 ARIZONA STATE (23-over 733).

 

Thorbjornsen (65-76) headlines a three-way tie atop the leaderboard at 1-under 141, joined by freshmen Wenyi Ding (70-71) of ARIZONA STATE and Ethan Fang (71-70) of CALIFORNIA as the only golfers in the red among 72 players. Senior Petr Hruby is one shot back at even-par through 15 holes to pace a trio of Huskies currently inside the top 10.

 

After winning the Pac-12 title wire-to-wire last spring, Thorbjornsen led with an opening 6-under 65 and has now held at least a share of the lead for five consecutive Championships rounds; he is on the cusp of a sixth pending Saturday morning's completion of 36 holes.

 

Six groups will resume their second rounds at 8:30 a.m. MT, with the third round slated to begin at approximately 10:30 a.m. MT.

 

Daily 30-minute highlight shows will air on Pac-12 Network at 10:00 a.m. PT the morning following each day of competition.