Utah Golf Outpaces the Field in Round Three of Pac-12 Championships

STANFORD, Calif. – The University of Utah men’s golf team outplayed 11 other teams to post the lowest score of the third round and Javier Barcos shot a 6-under 64 on day two of the 2023 Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships, which took place on Saturday at the Stanford Golf Course.
 
“Any time you have a player shoot 64, that helps the team score a ton,” said head coach Garrett Clegg, “but overall, we had five players play really solid rounds of golf. Braxton played a great final nine holes to shoot 68, Go and Hunter were rock solid all day to shoot 69 and 70, respectively. It was good to see Jesper shoot 71 after he really struggled yesterday. Overall, it was a really good day for the boys.”
 
For the Utes, this represents their lowest score in relation to par at the conference tournament since they were 10-under during the second round of the 2018 Pac-12 Championships. It also goes down as their second-lowest mark of season, surpassed only by the 15-under 273 they recorded at the John Burns Intercollegiate in February.
 
Leading the way for Utah was Barcos, who matched his team’s lowest round of the year and climbed 13 spots up the leaderboard to within four strokes of first place. The junior from Spain began his day on hole No. 10 and quickly reeled off six straight pars, then collected back-to-back birdies that helped him get to 2-under on the back nine.
 
Barcos started the second half of his round with a red score on the first, then collected five pars in-a-row before ending his day with three straight birdies for an overall score of 9-under. Barcos is the first Utah player to shoot a 64 at the conference championships since Kyler Dunkle hit that number in the second round in 2019.
 
“The largest force for us was Javier,” said Clegg. “His six birdies with no bogeys was an awesome performance. It pushed him into the top three in the tournament individually. He is still four strokes behind the leader, so he will need something special tomorrow.”
 
Go Nakatsukasa matched his score from round two with his second straight 1-under 69. He played even golf on the back nine before finishing with three front nine birdies that got him under par. The freshman from San Diego has now posted three rounds under par in his last four tries and will enter Saturday’s final round tied for 24th and 1-under for the…