2022/23 MEN'S GOLF Golf season news, results and discussion (@ Pac 12 Championships @ Stanford 4/28-30)

[AztecBuff]

Article after the team finished 12th (out of 28) at the tourney that ended yesterday - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/4/1/mens-golf-buff-golfers-finish-12th-in-stanfords-the-goodwin.aspx

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SAN FRANCISCO — The University of Colorado men's golf team capped off a week on the west coast hereSaturday with a 12th place finish in Stanford's "The Goodwin."

No. 13 Oklahoma rallied to overtake No. 11 Georgia Tech for the team title, as the Sooners finished with an 18-under 822 score; Tech had led by one stroke heading into Saturday's final round and would finish at 12-under 828. Host and No. 8 Stanford claimed the bronze spot with a 1-under 839, with San Francisco fourth (841) and California and San Diego tying for fifth (842).

Colorado, ranked No. 51, basically had a similar effort for third straight day, closing with a 6-over 286 that pushed its 54-hole total to 14-over 854 and the 12th place finish. The 28-team field was comprised of 14 top 75 schools and 18 of the top 100; CU defeated eight of those, including two in the top 40 (Little Rock and BYU).

Sophomore Dylan McDermott led the way for the Buffaloes for the sixth time this season, as he finished with a 2-under 68 that gave him a 5-under 205 overall, good for a fourth place finish. He had a team-high five birdies and 10 pars Saturday, which gave him nine and 38, respectively, for the meet, along with an eagle. He played the par-3 holes at even, the 10th-best in the 155-player field, and the par-5's tied for the eighth-best at 1-under. His 38 pars tied for the 17th-most as well on the 6,939-yard, par-70 TPC at Harding Park course, just two hours southwest of his native Granite Bay.
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The Buffaloes return to action on April 21-22, heading west over the Rockies to participate in BYU's Cougar Classic for the first time since 1989. It will be the final tune-up, as the Pac-12 Championship follow the next week at Stanford.

NOTES: The 5-under 205 by McDermott tied the fourth-best score for 54 holes in CU history on a par-70 layout; he set the record last September with a 10-under 200 at Notre Dame … McDermott increased his team-high best to 14 rounds in the 60s this season and to 22 for his career; the CU single-season mark is 18, set by Jeremy Paul during the 2015-16 campaign … The average score for the 465 rounds for the tourney was 72.39; it was 72.58 for Saturday's play … Colorado had seven double bogeys combined but none higher; the eighth-fewest in the meet (San Diego, SMU and San Francisco had the fewest with two each) … Colorado played the par-3s at 18-over (tied for 19th in the field), the par-4s at 31-over (tied for 13th) and the par-5s at 11-under (also tied for 13th) … The Buffs had one of just 16 eagles (by McDermott on Thursday), tied for 18th in birdies (34, San Francisco had 56) and the 10th-most pars (168; Cal led with 190) … McDermott lowered his season stroke average to 70.3, holding the edge over Biwer (70.7) as both have played 27 rounds … Colorado is now 114-40-4 against Division I competition for the 2022-23 season.
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[AztecBuff]

The team has just begun its final regular season tourney today, this one in Provo, with 2 rounds scheduled today and 1 tomorrow. (The Pac 12 Championships are scheduled to begin next Friday with Stanford hosting at their home course in Palo Alto.)

Preview - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/4/20/...ver-the-rockies-for-final-pac-12-tune-up.aspx

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Men's Golf April 20, 2023 David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

Buff Golfers Pop Over The Rockies For Final Pac-12 Tune-Up​

Colorado to play in BYU Cougar Classic for the first time since 1989​

BOULDER — The University of Colorado men's golf team will head west over the Rocky Mountains to participate in Brigham Young's 58th Annual PING-Cougar Classic, the Buffaloes' final tune-up prior to the Pac-12 Championship later this month.

It will be the 18th time that CU will play in the event, but for the first time since 1989; the Buffs were regular participants most years from 1968 through 1989, with their best finishes coming in 1978, 1980 and 1981 with runner-up efforts all three time behind the host Cougars. BYU has won or shared the title in 39 years of the event.

At present, rain is in the forecast for Friday, which could alter the format into a shotgun start at 9 a.m. MDT; otherwise, the teams will tee of the No. 1 and 10 tees between 8 and 10 a.m. in the morning and 1 and 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Saturday's final round is set for a 9 a.m. shotgun start; all competition will take place at the 7,142-yard, par-72 Riverside Country Club.

"We're excited to get to Provo and to Riverside," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "We have heard many positive comments about the tournament and course. We have six players competing so we expect it to be great preparation for the Pac-12 Championship. Practice has been really good since we returned from Stanford. The guys have a lot to be confident about and we expect to play well this week."

For the fourth time this spring, CU's lineup will consist of sophomores Dylan McDermott, Justin Biwer, Tucker Clark and Jack Holland, along with freshman Hunter Swanson. In addition, Jack Hughes will play as an individual.

The field will be comprised of 16 teams. Participating along with No. 56 Colorado will include others in GolfStat's Top 100 as of April 16: Brigham Young (ranked No. 44) and New Mexico State (No. 84), with Wyoming just outside (at No. 104). Others competing will be Boise State, Cal Baptist, CSU-Northridge, Denver, Gonzaga, Hawai'i, Nevada, St. Mary's, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Utah Tech and Utah Valley.

The Pac-12 Championship is set for Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, April 28-30; the teams will play 36 holes on that Friday, then 18 each of the final two days. The course will be set up in a 6,727-yard, par-70 configuration. It's a 6-for-5 format, meaning six players will be on each roster with the five best scores in each round counting toward the team total. Edwards and assistant Derek Tolan will huddle following this weekend to determine CU's final roster for the school's 11th Pac-12 title run.

NOTES: Two Buffaloes have been medalists in the tournament, Steve Jones winning with a 7-under 209 score in 1981 and John Lindberg claiming the crown with a 12-under 204 effort in 1989 … McDermott leads the team in stroke average (70.3), ahead of Biwer (70.7); CU's "super" sophs have combined to be under par in 12 of 16 tournaments this season, with McDermott doing so eight times, including a school record seven in a row … Colorado takes a 114-40-4 record against Division I competition into this weekend; the 73.4 winning percentage currently is ahead of CU's all-time best of 69.5 (133-57-5) set in 2017-18.
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Live results - https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=26673

 

[AztecBuff]

Congrats to him!

 

[AztecBuff]

Preview in front of the Pac 12 Championships which begin tomorrow morning at Stanford - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/4/27/mens-golf-golfers-ready-for-pac-12-championships.aspx
(The 1st CU golfer looks to be teeing off around 8:30 AM MT (7:30 AM local time).)

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Men's Golf April 27, 2023 David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

Golfers Ready For Pac-12 Championships​

Play Begins Friday in Palo Alto on Stanford campus.​

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The 63nd Annual Pac-12 Conference men's golf championships, the 11th version with 12 schools, begins here Friday, with the Colorado Buffaloes looking to end a run of three straight second division finishes.

One of the youngest CU teams to ever compete in a conference championship, as the Buffaloes' six players here are comprised of one senior, four sophomores and a true freshman, yet the head coach Roy Edwards is confident the Buffs are ready to perform their best in the spring season.

"We're actually a lot more experienced team than it shows on paper," Edwards said. "Though just two have played in the Pac-12 championship before, almost all have experience on the Stanford course. Tucker has played in an ACC championship and an NCAA regional, Jack Holland and Jack Hughes have been through the fire and have been a key part of our competitions all year, so it won't be something new for them. And Hunter has as well, you're not really a freshman any more with 10 tournaments under your belt. So I do like the make-up of this team and they're excited to do well."

Edwards and assistant coach Derek Tolan are going with the six players who participated in all five spring competitions: sophomores Dylan McDermott (70.17 stroke average), Justin Biwer (70.93) and Tucker Clark (72.23), freshman Hunter Swanson (72.87), senior Jack Hughes (74.00) and sophomore Jack Holland (73.30).

CU's top two players the last two seasons are California natives and have done well in their home state in six tournaments over the last two seasons, Biwer owning a 71.17 stroke average and McDermott at 72.05. McDermott finished fourth in Stanford's The Goodwin last month (205, -5) held at Harding Park in San Francisco.

"Dylan and Justin are two very special players," Edwards said. "They will go down by the end of their careers as two of the best in CU history. A sophomore slump for either never entered my mind. I fully expected them to take it up a level, and both have done that."

Swanson is one of 19 freshmen competing here this weekend; slotted in team's No. 4 position, only five freshmen in the league are positioned higher in their team spots, with just one in the top spot (Utah's Brian Robinson, though he is down the line in stroke average among the frosh at 75.00). Swanson is ninth among league frosh in stroke norm. Seven teams have two frosh competing, the other five just one (CU, Oregon, Stanford, USC and Washington).

"Hunter's been great, he's played in all but one tournament as a scorer and as an individual in CSU's meet," Edwards said. "He's very steady. I'm waiting for him – and so is he – to have that breakout tournament, he's a terrific young player who's starting to really emerge."

It's the time in a conference championship that none of the top three players are an upperclassman, and the fifth time without one a senior.

"Overall, I've been pretty pleased with the year," Edwards said. "We've had a lot of good finishes in tournaments and individually some strong moments. Dylan has led the way, Justin has been really good; Tucker's come right in as a transfer and has played really well. Hunter has had a really nice freshman year and the 'Jacks' have had some good moments as well.

"We're excited to get to Stanford because this team can be really competitive this week and we expect to be. Everyone on our roster is capable of some really low numbers, and I feel like we're in a great spot to do that at Stanford."

The Pac-12 has long instituted a 6-for 5 scoring format for its title meet, obviously a reward for those schools with greater depth and a challenge for those without it. It's almost always the only time any of the schools see such a format annually. But Edwards has always prepared his team for such a setup.

"It's a little unique, but we spend all year playing guys as individuals, so everybody one through six in the lineup has had a lot of tournament experience," Edwards noted. "Everyone's played in the (designated scorer) lineup and if not as individuals. It's important for us to have built that depth through the year and I feel good with where we are at with it. So, we're definitely ready for the 6-for-5 format."

The teams will begin play Friday with 36 holes, followed by 18 each on Saturday and Sunday at Stanford Golf Club, located on the Cardinal campus that was designed nearly 100 years ago. It will play to a 6,727-yard, par-70 blueprint for the tournament (the course has five par-3s, three par-5s with 10 par-4s).

"It's a great college, on-campus golf course," Edwards said. "It has some great history in the game. You play well, you'll score well. If not, you won't. You have to control your ball, as the course will test your patience. They always do an amazing of hosting tournaments there, so we're all looking forward to the challenge the course presents.

"The Pac-12, the SEC and the Big 12 are all sort of in a big competition as to which is the best golf conference. I believe that the Pac-12 has the most depth, as every team is extremely competitive. If you win the Pac-12 Championship, you will be in the mix for the national championship."

Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com.
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Live scoring - https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=27787

 

[AztecBuff]

The Championships have begun. (Not a great start for the Buffs at +3, but a LONG way to go.)

 

[AztecBuff]

Looks like the Buffs may have had one of if not their best days of the season on the course, and sit in 2nd place at the halfway point of the Pac 12 Championships. (The Championships featured 2 rounds today, and single rounds tomorrow and Sunday.) Their 2nd round was the best in the field by 5 strokes, and they currently are only behind #4 ranked Arizona (by 4 strokes), while being ahead (by at least 6 strokes) over the #'s 37, 22, 9, 18 and 50th ranked teams in the country in the Golfstat rankings.

Keep it up for 2 more rounds Buffffssss!

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[t.d.c.buffs]

I just saw on the PAC Network- Buffs are tied with UW for first heading into the final round! Dylan McDermott had another great day and currently sits in second individually at -11. Go CU!

 

[AztecBuff]

From the leaderboard, looks like the final round has just begun.

Article after yesterday's action -

 

[Buffnik]

Stanford dominating. Buffs still in 2nd, a stroke clear of ASU & 2 on Washington.

Team - 2023 Pac-12 Men's Golf Championships - 2023-04-28

 

[AztecBuff]

Buffs finish in a tie for 3rd. Should be more than enough (along with their work the rest of the season) to qualify for an NCAA regional berth. (As with seemingly all sports, the margin of error is SMALL. Believe the team was in solo 2nd place, but bogies by their #'s 1 & 2 golfers on the 18th hole slipped them down to the 3rd place tie in what was a tight battle between the 2nd-6th top teams..)

Now, the team just needs to wait until this Wednesday morning at 11:00 AM when the NCAA regional fields will be announced on the Golf Channel and on their app.

Congrats to the team overall, as well as sophomore Dylan McDermott individually for finishing 2nd in the individual leader board.




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/4/30/mens-golf-golfers-tie-for-third-at-pac-12-championship.aspx

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PALO ALTO, Calif. — The University of Colorado men's golf team took a quick lead here Sunday but could not hold off a charging Stanford team and eventually settled for a tie for third place as the 63rd annual Pac-12 Championship came to a close.

No. 9 and the host Cardinal pulled away from the field early; entering the round tied for third and two strokes behind No. 57 Colorado and No. 37 Washington, familiarity with the home course finally paid off for them, as it was 5-under on the front nine, while the Buffs were 6-over and the Huskies 8-over. In the end, Stanford was the only team under par in the final round (a 4-under 346) and finished with a 19-under score of 1,381.

No. 4 Arizona State clung on to second with a 1,394 score, while the Buffaloes and Washington State tied for third with 1,395 totals. No. 22 Oregon and No. 37 and defending champion Washington tied for fifth at 1,397, on the back end of just four strokes separating five teams.

It was still CU's second-best finish in 11 Pac-12 championship meets, as only a second place effort in 2018 topped this weekend's performance. After entering the day tied for first place, the Buffaloes did assume the lead early Sunday for a few holes, until Stanford caught fire.

The scores were higher the last two rounds, when the winds picked up a bit; on Sunday, they were gusting at times from 15-to-20 miles per hour. As a result, the final round's stroke average was over three strokes higher than in the second round, and of the 195 double bogeys or worse scored here, 74 took place on Sunday. Colorado wound up with the second fewest of those here with just 10, one behind Washington (the home team even had 16, six on Sunday, one more than CU and UW).

Sophomore Dylan McDermott finished second after firing a 2-under 68 for a 13-under 267 scorecard, which was two back of Stanford's Michael Thorbjornsen, who also closed with a 68 and a 15-under 265 total on the 6,727-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Club course layout. In scoring in the 60s all four rounds, he became just the third Buffalo to accomplish the feat, with the 13-under effort tying the school best in relation to par in a tournament on any course configuration, including the best-ever on a par-70 design.
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"Dylan played just amazing," head coach Roy Edwards said. "He went toe-to-toe with the world's third-ranked amateur, and was right there with him the entire time. He went stroke-for-stroke with him all day, and even though he came up just short, the experience for Dylan will be both beneficial and memorable."
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"Team-wise, we did something that money can't buy, and that is getting a lot of experience playing with the lead on a really tough day on a tough golf course," Edwards said. "Getting that experience and playing with the pressure and emotion, I feel like we handled it for the most part. It was really pivotal for a young team and eventually falling short to one of the nation's top teams on its home course is nothing to be ashamed about.

"Our course management was good all week, much more challenging today with the weather," he added. "The native grass was so thick and high, and with the wind, if you miss-hit it, the ball would got into those native grasses and a high number was inevitable – there were a lot of lost balls. I was really proud of how the team managed their games."
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The NCAA Championship selections for six regionals will be announced live on the Golf Channel this Wednesday, May 3 beginning at 11:00 a.m. MDT (also streamed live on its website). Colorado should be in good position for its first berth as a team since the 2017-18 season, though has had an individual qualify each of the three regionals since.

NOTES: McDermott's four rounds in the 60s this weekend gives him 20 for the year, topping the previous CU record of 18 set by Jeremy Paul in 2015-16; he now owns the season mark of rounds or par or better with 30, which includes 11 in a row after setting the school mark of 13 last fall … McDermott also now has 24 subpar rounds, tying the school-best by Yannik Paul in 2017-18 … The average score for all 288 rounds was 71.48: the 73.42 mark for Sunday was the highest of the four rounds, well above the second round low of 70.26 … Colorado played the par-4's the second-best at 27-over (Stanford was slightly best at plus-26); the Buffs also played the par-3s at 14-over (sixth) and the par-5s at 21-under (ninth) … The Buffs finished tied for third in birdies (83, Oregon led with 86, Stanford had 84) and was ninth in pars (254; Oregon State led with 280) … Colorado is now 15-10-1 versus Pac-12 schools this year, and also holds the edge in rounds by 48-36-5; CU is 127-52-5 against Division I competition; the first criteria for selection into the NCAA Regionals owning a winning record against Division I opponents ... The Buffaloes defeated four top 50 teams here (No. 18 Arizona, No. 22 Oregon, No. 37 Washington and No. 50 Cal), and kept three others ranked behind them at an arm's length … Heading into regionals, McDermott lowered his team-leading stroke average to 69.76 for 34 rounds.
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TEAM STANDINGS

1.	Stanford	350-341-344-346—1381
2.	Arizona State	331-345-359-359—1394
3.	COLORADO	344-336-353-362—1395
3.	Washington State	344-349-349-353—1395
5.	Oregon	342-345-351-359—1397
5.	Washington	343-343-347-364—1397
7.	Arizona	352-349-350-363—1414
8.	California	351-353-351-361—1416
9.	Oregon State	351-362-352-358—1423
10.	Southern California	356-354-358-359—1427
11.	Utah	361-348-342-381—1432
12.	UCLA	366-348-364-370—1448

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[4DemBuffs]

How the hell is USC and UCLA bad at golf?