Cats Claw Their Way Back Up Leaderboard at NCAA Regionals

TUCSON, Ariz. – No. 19 Arizona Men’s Golf bounced back from a difficult opening day at the NCAA Morgan Hill Regional by moving up three spots on the leaderboard into ninth place at 19-over par on Tuesday. The Wildcats’ 9-over performance in the second round was among the top half of the 13-team field. Senior Chase Sienkiewicz carded the team’s best score with an even par round of 72.

“We had a great response from all our guys today after a challenging first day,” said head coach Jim Anderson. “I am proud of our team’s mindset to claw our way back up the leaderboard today, which was a testament to our resiliency as a team. We’ve got some work still to do tomorrow if we want to advance on, but our guys have shown they’re up for the challenge. We will take tomorrow shot by shot and play the best round we can and see how the chips fall at the end of the day.”

Sienkiewicz sank five birdies before the turn as he propelled the Wildcats to an early ascension up the leaderboard. Arizona began its round on the 10^th hole again on Tuesday and shot nine strokes better on the back nine than the day before. The senior’s round of 72 moved him into the top 20 of the field at 2-over.

The Institute Golf Club showed its difficult side once again on Tuesday as not a single team broke par with Baylor shooting the lowest round of the day at 6-over. Arizona posted the best performance of the day on any hole with four birdies and a par on the 511-yard, par-5 14^th hole. The Cats moved into the top five in par-5 scoring after two rounds with Sienkiewicz sitting tied for third in that statistic.

Sophomore Tiger Christensen joined Sienkiewicz in the top 30 of the player leaderboard with a 36-hole score of 4-over par.

Arizona will have to climb even farther up the leaderboard in Wednesday’s finale if they are to advance to NCAA Championships. The Wildcats are 11 strokes behind fifth-place BYU with a trio of programs in between them and the Cougars. Arizona will tee off from the first hole at 8:25 a.m. (MST) and will play alongside two other teams also in the chase for the fifth spot in Louisville and NC State.