University of Washington
The Gifford Collegiate (Purple)
Dawgs Tied For The Lead At Gifford Collegiate
November 02, 2015 | Men's Golf
Live Scoring
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Playing their final tournament of the fall, Washington is off to a hot start and is tied for the lead after one round of the Gifford Collegiate. Facing a deep field that features nine teams in the top-50, the Huskies are in contention at UCLA's home tournament being played at the La Costa Legends Course.
The Dawgs are tied with No. 5 Stanford for the overall lead at 1-over 285. No. 29 Oregon and No. 28 UCLA are two shots back and tied for third as the four Pac-12 powers have a bit of a gap on the rest of the field. No. 26 South Florida and No. 41 Arkansas are tied for fifth at 6-over.
After beginning the season ranked in the top-25 and tying for the team title at the season-opening Husky Invitational, the Dawgs fell out of the ranking following two subpar tournaments. Monday, they looked to get back on track and did so with a complete effort from the team.
"It wsa a really solid team round for us," said head coach Matt Thurmond. "It's been a long time since we had a good first round. The guys told me it had been since April, so it feels good."
Washington was led by Corey Pereira who finished with a round of 2-under 69 and is tied for fourth. Pereira is just two shots off the lead held by Cole Madey of UCLA, despite a round that began with a thud. Starting on the back nine, Pereira doubled No. 12 and then bogeyed No. 13 and was 3-over just four holes into his round. His struggles would not last, however, as Pereira birdied No. 15 for his first of five on the day and would not drop another stroke the rest of the round. He played his final 14 holes at 5-under to rocket up the leaderboard and into contention for the individual title.
"I love what Corey did," said Thurmond. "He was 3-over through four holes and back for a 69. I love that type of maturity and fight."
Also faring well for the Huskies was Chris Babcock who was playing in the Washington lineup for the first time this season. Babcock birdied his first two holes and had his round to 3-under, before bogeys on three of his last four. Still, it was an impressive round for the senior who is currently tied for 10th.
The other two scores kept for the Dawgs came from sophomore Frank Garber who shot 1-over 72 and freshman Carl Yuan who fired a 2-over 73. Garber made four birdies and is tied for 17th, while Yuan had just a single birdie, but stayed out of trouble and is tied for 25th.
Jonathan Sanders played as the Husky No. 1 for the first time this season and shot 3-over 74. The senior was 4-over through seven holes, but turned things around beginning with an eagle on the par-five 17th to play his final 12 holes at 1-under.
"I love that our highest score was 74," said Thurmond. "The greens are fast and they got real choppy late in the round. The wind was swirling all day so the course played tough."
Playing as an individual was freshman Matt Marrese who shot 1-over 72 and is tied for 17th.
The Dawgs will resume the tournament on Tuesday morning in Southern California, hoping to stay atop the leaderboard as the play the second of three rounds at the Gifford Collegiate.
"We look forward to trying to have the low team round again tomorrow," said Thurmond. "We used to call that 'win the day', until Oregon football stole it from us."
