PHOENIX – Gabriel Palacios carded the lowest mark recorded by a Utah golfer this season, while the University of Utah men’s golf team tied its third-best round score of the 2023-24 campaign to finish 7-under on the final day of the Thunderbird Collegiate, which ended on Saturday at the Papago Golf Club in Phoenix.
Palacios jumped 42 spots up the leaderboard on Saturday, the most by any player during the last round, and left Arizona with a share of 19th at 2-under. His 6-under 65 also tied for the tournament’s best score over the final 18 holes and the freshman from Guatemala accomplished that by collecting seven birdies, four of which came over his first six holes of the day. Palacios birdied the first, third, fifth and sixth holes and added another on the ninth before making the turn.
On the back nine, Palacios put up two more red scores on the 12th and 13th and rattled off five straight pars to enter the clubhouse with the lowest 18-hole score by a Ute since Javier Barcos’ 64 in the third round of the 2023 Pac-12 Championships.
Barcos was even on Saturday to also conclude the tournament tied for 19th. He collected 14 pars and birdies the 13th and 16th to log a 1-under 34 on the back nine. Barcos did not post a score higher than par in any of his three rounds in Phoenix and his mark of 2-under for the tournament makes four times in Utah’s last five events he’s recorded a 54-hole score under par. Barcos also has seven top 20 finishes to his credit, tied for a team-high.
Sergio Jimenez was 1-under over his last 11 holes during round three to enter the clubhouse with an even par 71 that also put him at even for the tournament and his 40 total pars were the competition’s second-highest total. Jimenez would end up deadlocked with five other golfers in 27th.
Brandon Robison was 1-over on Saturday to finish at 1-over for the tournament and tied for 34th, while Braxton Watts put up an even-par 71 that left him 2-over and tied for 43rd.
Utah was 6-under as a team during the final round, tied for fourth-best on Saturday, and the list of ranked squads the Utes finished ahead of included No. 7 Washington, No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 14 Oklahoma.
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