Robison, Barcos Tie for Second, Utes Place Third at Gaucho Invite

GOLETA, Calif. – Brandon Robison achieved the highest finish of his Utah career and he was joined in a tie for second by Javier Barcos, while the University of Utah men’s golf team finished 20 shots under par to collect a third-place finish on Tuesday, the final day of the Gaucho Invitational, which concluded with 18 holes at the Sandpiper Golf Club in Goleta, Calif.
 
“Javi and Brandon were great,” said coach Garrett Clegg, “They were outstanding, but as a team we weren’t close to the level we were at Stanford. We have a couple of days and we are back at it and hopefully we play a lot better overall.”
 
Both Barcos and Robison stayed in contention for the tournament title the entire day and finished just two strokes behind eventual winner Enrique Dimayuga of Nevada. For Barcos, this goes down as the eighth top-five finish of his career and the third time in Utah’s last four tournaments he’s landed in the top three. For Robison this makes two top three finishes in his team’s last four events, as he previously took third at the Invitational at the Ford in February.
 
As a team, this makes three top three finishes for the Utes in 2023-24 and this is the fifth time in the last six competitions Clegg’s crew has posted a score of even-par or lower. This is also the first time since the Pat Hicks Thunderbird Invitational in the February of 2020 the Utes have placed multiple golfers in the top three of a tournament.
 
Barcos’ 4-under 68 was Utah’s top Tuesday score and he was at his best on the back nine. The senior from Spain was 3-under after the turn, right after birdieing the par-4 ninth, which he immediately followed with another red number on the 10th. Barcos carded back-to-back birds on the 15th and 16th as well, allowing him to jump up from Monday’s fourth place finish into second at 10-under.
 
This makes four top five finishes for Barcos so far in 2023-24, the most by a Ute since Kyler Dunkle also logged four in 2018-19. His five top-10 finishes in a season are also tied for fourth-most in a year in school history, matching the numbers recorded by Phil Holmes in 1991-92 and Clegg in 2003-04.

Robison maintained his hold on second place thanks in large part to a mark of 2-under on the front nine, which included consecutive scores in the red on holes five and six. He added one more birdie on the back half of…