León, Barcos Move Up During Second Round of Isleworth Collegiate

WINDERMERE, Fla. – Martín León and Javier Barcos both shot 4-under and the University of Utah men’s golf team was 2-under in the second round of the Isleworth Collegiate, which took place on Monday at the Isleworth Country Club.
 
“Today was a lot better round overall,” said coach Garrett Clegg. “Javi and Martín played really well and carried us. Overall, though, we didn’t make any big mistakes. We made some bogeys but for the first time in a long time, we didn’t have any double bogeys or worse. Another good round tomorrow could move us up the leaderboard.”

This marks the third time in 2022-23 the Utes have had multiple players post red numbers in the same round and it’s also the squad’s first team score of the year under par.

 

Barcos and León both took massive leaps up the leaderboard, with Barcos holding Utah’s best overall score at 1-under and in a tie for 13th. The junior from Spain began the day with a birdie and a bogey, then rattled off five consecutive pars before birdieing the 17th. In the second half of his round, Barcos pocketed three more birdies and was 3-under on the front nine to finish with a 68 and move up 24 spots. He’ll start the final round just two strokes behind three players tied for 9th as he aims to close out the fall with a third straight top 10 finish. 

 

León didn’t record a single score higher than par in round two and started off his day with a couple early birdies on the 10th and 13th. After that, León carded 11 pars in-a-row before capping the second round with two more birdies over his last three holes. His mark of 4-under goes down as his second-lowest round score in relation to par as a Ute and it also moved him up 31 spots to grab a share of 31st. León’s 27 pars are tied for second-most in the tournament after two days.

 

Tanner Telford ended the day tied for 51st, having posted a 3-over 75 that included a score of 1-under on the back nine. He’s 7-over for the tournament while Braxton Watts is 9-over and in 59th. Watts was 1-over on the front nine and collected four birdies on Monday. Hunter Howe sliced seven shots off his first-round score for a 3-over 75 of his own and is tied for 70th. Utah’s team score through the first two rounds is 17-over and they’re in 13th. Only one squad in the 15-team field has piled up more pars than Utah’s 114 through 36…