Jakubcik Shines for Wildcats To Open Western Intercollegiate

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Freshman Filip Jakubcik fired a blistering low round of 66 on the opening day of the Western Intercollegiate to pace No. 16 Arizona Men’s Golf. Pasatiempo Golf Club showed its challenging side again on Monday with 70 percent of the field not breaking par, which included the Wildcats who finished the day at 6-over in 13^th place.

“Our score at the end of the day didn’t reflect the quality of round we played out there,” said head coach Jim Anderson. “We played some great golf throughout the round as a team that came up just short on the leaderboard. Filip was phenomenal out there as a freshman with Sammy giving us a quality round as well. We are just a couple of shots here and there from where we want to be, and I know we will come out Tuesday and make some moves up the leaderboard.”

 

The best of ???? in opening round of Western Intercollegiate? Our friends at @GolfChannel gave us this ?? from Filip Jakubcik on 18th ??. pic.twitter.com/tzyB4CMP90

— Arizona Men’s Golf (@ArizonaMGolf) April 11, 2023

Jakubcik’s 66 was not only the best round of his freshman season, but it tied the lowest round ever carded by a Wildcat at the Western Intercollegiate. The freshman tied George Cunningham’s effort in 2018 and a second-round performance by Tianlang Guan a year later. Jakubcik sits in a tie for fifth at 4-under par entering Tuesday’s second round. Sam Sommerhauser shot an even par round of 70 to open the tournament, which was among the top 30 scores of the day.

Arizona was second in the field in par-3 scoring in the first round at 2-over par with Chase Sienkiewicz joining Jakubcik in the top 10 individually in that statistic. The Wildcats recorded 14 birdies on the front nine of Pasatiempo, nearly doubling their effort of eight on the back.

The Wildcats sit four strokes out of fifth place entering Tuesday as part of a nine-team pack of teams jammed into the middle of the leaderboard. After being one of the last teams off in the afternoon in Monday’s opener, Arizona will tee off its second round at 10:34 a.m. (MST) with the Golf Channel providing coverage for the back nine of the Cats’ round.