SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The University of Colorado men’s golf team moved up six spots into a tie for 17th place here Saturday, as the NCAA Championship Finals reached its midway point.
The Buffaloes are very much in contention to make the 15-team cut into Monday’s fourth and final round, as CU is just three strokes back of three teams tied for 13th (and eight out of eighth place, which is the cutline for match play that begins Monday).
Third-ranked Illinois grabbed the lead at the 36-hole mark, due to the Fighting Illini posting the best single round score of the 60 over two days – a 7-under 273 for 2-under 558 score overall. No. 9 Florida moved into second place with a 1-over 561 total, as the Gators were the only other team to break par in the second (2-under 278). No. 2 North Carolina and No. 11 Georgia Tech, the first round leader, are tied for third (566), with No. 8 Pepperdine rounding out the top five (568).
Colorado, ranked No. 48, moved into a tie for 17th with San Francisco with 19-over 579 totals. After the morning round was complete, the Buffaloes had moved up from a tie for 23rd into a tie for 15th, but 10 of those teams were also playing in the afternoon; 12 teams that finished had higher scores in relation to CU’s 12-over at the time. Colorado’s 7-over 287 score in the afternoon round tied for the fourth-best, behind Florida’s 278 and Auburn’s and Georgia Tech’s 286.
While the Buffaloes haven’t been a birdie machine, what’s kept them in the hunt is the fact that it only has two holes worse than bogey through two rounds (180 holes) – none on Saturday, the only team of the 30 that could make that claim. Yet a small flurry of birdies Saturday – four over the last five holes, pulled the Buffs closer to making the cut.
CU’s story of the second round was sophomore Tucker Clark, who hails from nearby Paradise Valley, rebounding from an opening 80 to card a 3-under 67, the second lowest score of the second round, which jumped him 69 spots in the standings into a tie for 84th. The 13- stroke improvement was the largest in the field, as well as a Colorado best in its NCAA Finals history. In 1964, Bob Bahan opened with an 85 and shot a 75, that 10-shot improvement holding as the best for 59 years until Saturday.
His 67 was also the third-best score in an NCAA Finals by a Buffalo, behind only a 65 by…
The Buffaloes are very much in contention to make the 15-team cut into Monday’s fourth and final round, as CU is just three strokes back of three teams tied for 13th (and eight out of eighth place, which is the cutline for match play that begins Monday).
Third-ranked Illinois grabbed the lead at the 36-hole mark, due to the Fighting Illini posting the best single round score of the 60 over two days – a 7-under 273 for 2-under 558 score overall. No. 9 Florida moved into second place with a 1-over 561 total, as the Gators were the only other team to break par in the second (2-under 278). No. 2 North Carolina and No. 11 Georgia Tech, the first round leader, are tied for third (566), with No. 8 Pepperdine rounding out the top five (568).
Colorado, ranked No. 48, moved into a tie for 17th with San Francisco with 19-over 579 totals. After the morning round was complete, the Buffaloes had moved up from a tie for 23rd into a tie for 15th, but 10 of those teams were also playing in the afternoon; 12 teams that finished had higher scores in relation to CU’s 12-over at the time. Colorado’s 7-over 287 score in the afternoon round tied for the fourth-best, behind Florida’s 278 and Auburn’s and Georgia Tech’s 286.
While the Buffaloes haven’t been a birdie machine, what’s kept them in the hunt is the fact that it only has two holes worse than bogey through two rounds (180 holes) – none on Saturday, the only team of the 30 that could make that claim. Yet a small flurry of birdies Saturday – four over the last five holes, pulled the Buffs closer to making the cut.
CU’s story of the second round was sophomore Tucker Clark, who hails from nearby Paradise Valley, rebounding from an opening 80 to card a 3-under 67, the second lowest score of the second round, which jumped him 69 spots in the standings into a tie for 84th. The 13- stroke improvement was the largest in the field, as well as a Colorado best in its NCAA Finals history. In 1964, Bob Bahan opened with an 85 and shot a 75, that 10-shot improvement holding as the best for 59 years until Saturday.
His 67 was also the third-best score in an NCAA Finals by a Buffalo, behind only a 65 by…
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