Manke Tied For First, UW Eighth At NCAA Regionals

STOCKTON, Calif. – Thanks to a strong finish over the final four holes, the Washington men’s golf team moved from 10th to eighth place Tuesday at the NCAA Stockton Regional, leaving them just three positions and five strokes out of fifth place, the threshold for advancement to the NCAA National Championships.
 
UW senior RJ Manke shot a 5-under 67 to move into a tie for first place on the individual leaderboard, at 7-under through two rounds. The final round gets underway Wednesday morning.
 
The Huskies posted a team score of 12-under 276 during the second of three rounds at The Reserve at Spanos Park, 15 strokes better than their opening-round score. The UW began round two tied for 10th place.
 
Top-seeded Arizona State leads the tournament at 21-under, with Stanford (-19), Oregon (-16), BYU (-16), and LSU (-14) currently in the top five. At 11-under overall, UW is only three shots back of LSU, with sixth-place Denver (-13) only one back, with 18 holes to play. Liberty is currently seventh, at 11-under.

“We have a good chance tomorrow,” said UW head coach Alan Murray. “We’re obviously trying to finish as high as we can. It’s going to be tight. The final rounds of regionals are always pretty wild. We are looking forward to it, knowing that we can play well tomorrow. That’s all we can do: play the kind of golf we’re capable of.”

 

Manke played his first nine holes 2-under par, with a birdies on No. 15 and No. 16. After making the turn, he continued to climb, with birdies on the second, fourth, sixth and seventh holes. Manke shot a 70 in Monday’s first round, leaving him tied with five other players for first, at 7-under.

“RJ is a high-quality player and he’s just playing how he usually plays – really well,” Murray said. “He has a great attitude, and is hitting a lot of great shots. He’s trending in the right direction as all of our guys are right now.”

 

Over the Huskies’ final four holes (holes No. 6 through No. 9, as the UW began on No. 10), the five UW golfers combined for 10 birdies and just one bogey. The UW’s team score was the second-best of the day among the 14 teams competing in Stockton.

 

Petr Hruby accounted for three of those…