PALO ALTO, Calif. – The University of Colorado men’s golf team came out of the chute collectively slow, dropping seven spots in the standings before rallying to regain six of those in tying for eighth here Saturday as Stanford’s “The Goodwin” came to a close.
Host and No. 23 Stanford, the first round leader that had dropped into third heading into Saturday, shot the second lowest score of the final round and captured the win with a 17-under par team score of 823. Its former Pac-12 rival UCLA, ranked 35th, finished four back at 827, with No. 21 New Mexico (830), No. 24 Brigham Young (831) and No. 31 Long Beach State (835) rounding out the top five.
No. 44 Colorado was tied for seventh after two rounds, but after starting out 2-under three holes in, played the next three at 6-over before peaking at 9-over with four holes remaining after dropping into a tie for 14th. But a strong finish by the four Buffs who scored for the team – four birdies and 12 pars – sent the Buffs back into an eighth place tie with No. 30 Utah by the end of the day.
The massive 30-team field was stocked with 14 top 50 teams and 23 in the top 100; the Buffaloes went 6-6-1 against its top 50 colleagues and 14-7-1 against all in the top 100. The highest ranked team here – No. 18 Georgia Tech – tied for 14th, though the Yellow Jackets did record the lowest team score in the final round (7-under 273).
First-year graduate transfer Jackson Rivera led the Buffaloes for the third time this season, closing with a 1-over 71 for a 2-underf 208 that tied him for 19th in the monster 160-man field to take on the 6,742-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Course this week. He opened the round with a birdie on No. 1, but recorded all five bogeys of this round over the next nine holes to sit at 3-over with seven holes left. He collected himself to jump back into a top 20 finish – his fourth of the season – by closing with five pars and back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15 and 16. His 12 birdies tied for 18th-most in the event, also scoring 32 pars and 10 bogeys, the only Buff not to have at least one double. He finished 6-under on the par-5’s (12th-best in the field), an was 2-over on the par-3’s and par-4’s.
Senior Hunter Swanson turned in CU’s low round of the day – a 1-under 69 – to move from 54th into a tie for 37th. He had five birdies and nine pars with four bogeys, starting strong with birdies on Nos. 1 and 4, but sandwiched two bogeys on Nos. 5 and 6 with a birdie on No. 7 and then wrapped the front nine with a fourth bird on No. 9. He had back-to-back bogeys a second time (Nos. 11 & 12), before scoring his third birdie on as many par-5’s on No. 16, helping CU rally from the middle of the pack back into the top 10. He tied Rivera for the most birdies here this week with 12, along with 30 pars, 11 bogeys and one double. He played the par-5’s the best at 4-under, and was in the red on the par-3’s as well at 2-under (which tied for fifth in the field).
Junior Brandon Knight tied for 59th after closing with a 4-over 74, that polished off a 4-over 214 scorecard. His only birdie Saturday came on the 214-yard, par-3 3rd hole – but it was just of seven on the day as it played the fourth-toughest in the final round (+0.31 to par). He otherwise had 13 pars, three bogeys and a double, with 11 birdies and 32 pars against nine bogeys and three doubles overall, playing the par-5’s the best at 2-under.
Junior Ty Holbrook tied for 71st after finishing with a 5-over 75, that pushed him to a 6-over 216 for the event. He had three birdies, seven pars and eight bogeys – four on his first six holes that had him playing catch-up all day — to wrap things here, one of his birdies coming on one of just 18 Saturday on the tough 17th hole. CU’s par-5 master played the nine of them at 8-under overall, tied for third in the field.
Sophomore Parker Paxton closed with his best round here – a 1–over 71 for a 7-over 218 total that him tied for 88th, as he moved up 19 spots in the final standings. He had a bogey to open each nine, with eight pars in-between, and the closed with seven pars and also a birdie on No. 17 that was key in aiding CU getting back into the top 10. He had eight birdies, 31 pars opposite 14 bogeys and one double overall, and played the par-5’s the best at 3-under.
“It was a nice overall tournament from Jackson,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “We played very poorly the first 11, 12 holes and then our competitiveness came through to get a few shots back. Finishing in eighth place out of a large and good field of 30 teams isn’t anything to be ashamed of. We had a lot of good moments and beat a lot of good teams, and we can build off of from this week.”
New Mexico senior Mesa Falleur, a transfer from UM-Kansas City, claimed medalist honors after a final round 66 gave him a 12-under score of 198; that was good for a one stroke victory over Brigham Young’s Kihei Akina.
The Buffaloes will return to action April 10-11 in Phoenix, participating in Arizona State’s Thunderbird Intercollegiate. It will be CU’s final test before the Big 12 Championships at the end of April in Hutchinson, Kan.
NOTES: The temperature was a crisp 52 degrees under sunny skies when CU teed off at 7 a.m. local time, but it warmed into the 70’s by the end of the front nine … The average score for all 480 rounds was 72.35 (72.30 in the third round, 71.75 in the morning when CU played; it was 72.85 in the afternoon) … CU’s quintet here averaged 71.13 for its 15 rounds … There were 28 players under par all told and eight who finished even … Overall, 13 of the 18 holes played over-par on average (and a 14th that played to its par) … The eight toughest holes for the event, all playing a quarter of stroke at or over par, in order were Nos. 6, 12, 3, 2, 10, 18, 17 and 5; Colorado’s quintet played those at 32-over for the week; but played the other 10 at 15-under … The five Buffs played the par-5’s at 23-under (second behind Stanford’s minus-29), the par-3’s at 12-over (eighth, Long Beach State led at 1-over) and the par-4’s at 28-over (16th; BYU and UCLA led at 6-over) … Colorado tied for sixth in eagles (2; four had 4), tied for seventh in birdies (50; BYU led with 62), tied for 19th in pars (154; Stanford had 171). CU’s 57 bogeys tied for the 12th-most (BYU had the fewest, 40) … Rivera’s three rounds here with no score higher than a bogey gives him 20 in 29 rounds this season – third on the team – as CU collectively has 123 out of 190 this season without the higher numbers (Swanson leads with 26 out of 29, Paxton has 22) … Swanson’s 12 birdies here upped his career count to 473, closing in on fourth-place Yannik Paul’s (’18) 475 career mark … Swanson also recorded his 42nd career round in the 60’s – moving into third place all time at CU as he snapped a tie with Jeremy Paul — as well as his 54th subpar score (sixth all-time, one spot out of the top five) … Holbrook finished here with a birdie and two pars on the par-5’s, maintaining his mastery of the par-5’s this season (108 holes), with five eagles, 50 birdies, 47 pars and six bogeys, or 54-under par on the season … Colorado was 20-7-1 here against Division I competition, giving it a season record of 136-40-4 (.767) for 10 events, holding on to its lead with the most wins in the nation over Long Beach State (133); it finished 51-29-4 in single rounds here, now 367-126-24 (.733) on the season … Through 10 events, CU’s starting five are separated by less than a stroke in season average: Swanson (70.28), Knight and Paxton (70.70), Holbrook (71.07) and Rivera (71.21); the 0.93 difference is threatening the previous tightest between the top five, 1.28 in the ’12-13 season (Jason Burstyn led with a 73.12 mark) … The tournament is named for longtime Stanford coach Wally Goodwin (who also coached at Northern Colorado).
ALUMNI WATCH: Jeremy Paul (’17) is in 80th through three rounds of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club; at 3-over 219, he’s 19 strokes back of leaders Blades Brown and John Pak.
1.
Mesa Falleur, New Mexico
67-65-66—198
2.
Kihei Akina, BYU
66-66-67—199
T3.
Jay Leng, Stanford
65-70-68—203
T3.
William Sides, SMU
67-70-66—203
T3.
Avinash Iyer, San Jose State
68-71-64—203
1.
Stanford
269-280-274—823
2.
UCLA
276-272-279—827
3.
New Mexico
271-279-280—830
4.
Brigham Young
275-273-283—831
5.
Long Beach State
270-279-286—835
T6.
SMU
275-286-279—840
T6.
California
275-285-280—840
T8.
COLORADO
278-282-285—845
T8.
Utah
279-284-282—845
T10.
Washington State
281-277-288—846
T10.
Northwestern
284-276-286—846
12.
Nevada
283-282-283—848
13.
San Diego State
280-284-285—849
T14.
Georgia Tech
287-290-273—850
T14.
Cincinnati
291-284-276—850
T14.
Washington
284-286-280—850
T17.
TCU
289-276-289—854
T17.
Oregon
280-282-292—854
19.
Pacific
295-282-279—856
20.
San Jose State
285-285-289—858
21.
Arkansas-Little Rock
290-281-289—860
22.
UC Davis
285-291-286—862
23.
Grand Canyon
287-288-288—863
24.
Santa Clara
294-288-283—865
25.
Howard
286-291-291—868
26.
Hawai’i-Hilo
289-292-296—877
27.
Boise State
298-293-287—878
28.
Eastern Michigan
291-302-288—881
29.
Cal Poly
292-298-299—889
30.
Colorado State
300-306-295—901