University of Washington
NCAA Championships
Huskies Rise To 17th At NCAA Championships
May 31, 2015 | Men's Golf
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BRADENTON, Fla. – Washington continued play at the NCAA Championships on Saturday, improving by six shots on the first round to post a score of 6-over 294. The Dawgs moved up to 17th place in a tightly bunched leaderboard where a cut to the top-15 teams will happen after Sunday's third round.
The Huskies are now 19-over for the tournament and will play in the morning wave reserved for the bottom fifteen teams. They finished just one shot out of the afternoon wave for the top-15 as Oregon, Texas and Virginia are tied for 14th at 18-over. The morning tee time could be an advantage, particularly with increasing chances of thunderstorms as the day wears on.
Moving inside the top-15 will be Washington's initial goal, but they also need to make up ground on the top-eight teams who will advance to match play after Monday's fourth round. The Dawgs are currently six shots back of San Diego State and TCU who are tied for eighth at 12-over.
USC is the 36-hole leader at 2-under, the only team under par. Illinois is three shots back at 1-over, while Georgia and LSU are tied for third at 5-over. After that things get jumbled with just 14 shots separating fifth from 23rd place.
The Dawgs played well at the difficult Concession Golf Club, but sputtered a bit down the stretch to turn a great round into just a good one. Cheng-Tsung Pan once again led the Huskies, shooting a round of 2-under 70 to move up to a tie for sixth, five shots off the lead.
“I played well,” said Pan. “I took advantage of some of the easier holes and put myself in good spots. Overall I did well, I misjudged a couple shots, but that is alright.”
Bryson Dechambeau of SMU had the low round of the day, a 5-under 67 to get to 7-under and take a two-shot lead over Thomas Detry of Illinois. Pan is lurking, however, although he has more on his mind than the individual title.
“I am just trying to shoot as low a score as possible,” said Pan. “We are still a ways from eighth place so I need to shoot a good score to help the team. I also want to prove to those guys (his teammates) that this course is not that hard.”
The Husky senior made five birdies on the day, making one bad swing on the 14th tee that ended in double bogey.
“That was unfortunate,” said Pan. “A bug flew in my eye. I had my sunglasses on and it still flew underneath it. I felt my club go and I almost shanked it.”
Despite the unfortunate 14th hole, Pan came right back to birdie the 15th after hitting his second shot to a tap-in. He now has nine birdies to just two bogeys on the week, but its been a triple and double bogey that have kept him from the lead thus far.
The Dawgs also got solid play from Corey Pereira who shot a round of 1-over 73 for the second-straight day. The sophomore was 1-under through 14, but finishied with bogeys on two of his final four holes. Still, Pereira was a par machine, making 13 to go with a pair of birdies and just three bogeys. He is now 2-over for the week and tied for 30th.
Jonathan Sanders was quite the opposite of Pereira, making only three pars on the day. He shot 3-over 75, making a team-best six birdies, but also nine bogeys over an up-and-down round that included a streak of three-straight birdies, but also two streaks of three-straight bogeys. Sanders is now 7-over for the tournament and tied for 77th place.
The final score kept was a 4-over 76 from Frank Garber, which went a long way to improving the Dawgs team score for the day. After a double-bogey out of the woods on the first hole, the freshman responded with back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes and had his round at 1-over through 12 holes. Three-straight bogeys on 13, 14 and 15 moved him to 4-over, but it was still an important round as the Dawgs did not have to keep a big number. Garber is 12-over for the week and tied for 124th.
Kevin Kwon also played well through 12 holes, birdying the 10th to get to 2-over. He stumbled down the stretch to shoot 8-over 80 and is now tied for 153rd.
The Huskies will tee off their third round on the first hole beginning at 8:20 a.m. local time, playing with Virginia and UNLV. Moving up the leaderboard to get into position to reach match play will be a priority, but the Dawgs need to first make sure they finish in the top-15 to live another day. Pan will also look to get closer to the individual lead, but that is not his main priority.
“Winning the individual title would be great, but I want to play that fourth round as a team,” said Pan. “It'd be no fun to play that day by myself.”
Players Mentioned
