University of Washington
Western Intercollegiate (Purple)
Dawgs Eighth At Western Intercollegiate
April 12, 2016 | Men's Golf
Live Scoring
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- No. 25 Washington is in eighth place after the first round of the 70th Annual Western Intercollegiate, played at Pasatiempo Golf Club. The Dawgs struggled out of the gate, but then climbed back into the tournament with a solid finish.
"The course has some easy and tough stretches," said head coach Matt Thurmond. "We hit the toughest stretch without much momentum and got rocked. Then we settled in and made up a bunch of shots. We need to play the tougher holes better, but I am happy that they fought back the way that they did."
The Huskies started on holes 12, 13 and 14 as part of the shotgun start and played 9-over as a team, before making the turn back to the front side of the course. They then began to respond, playing better the rest of the day and finishing at 6-over 356. The Western Intercollegiate plays a unique system in college golf with six players competing and five scoring.
After being outside of the top-10 early on, Washington is now part of a tightly packed middle of the leaderboard. No. 26 Oregon leads overall at 9-under, followed by No. 9 Stanford at 5-under, No. 1 USC at 4-under and No. 39 Pepperdine as the final team under par at 2-under.
Fifth place is occupied by No. 15 California at 3-over as places five through nine are separated by just four strokes.
Corey Pereira led the Huskies with a round of 2-under 68 as the only Dawg under par. He is currently tied for seventh, five shots back of Aaron Wise of Oregon who opened with a round of 7-under 63. Wise leads by three over Maverick McNealy of Stanford with four players tied for third at 3-under.
Pereira was the only Husky who did not start slow, instead playing a consistent round that included four birdies and just two bogeys.
Also playing well for the Huskies were Jonathan Sanders and Frank Garber who were each fired 1-over 71's and are tied for 29th. Both players made three birdies on the day, including two late to help get the Dawgs back in the tournament.
Carl Yuan had the fourth score for Washington, firing a 2-over 72. He made a team-best five birdies, but also five bogeys and a double.
The final score as part of keeping five came from Chris Babcock who shot 4-over 74 and is tied for 59th. He had the team's only eagle, but also made two double-bogeys.
Kevin Kwon rounded out the squad with a round of 9-over 79 and is tied for 83rd.
The Huskies will be back on the course Tuesday for the second round of the Western Intercollegiate. They will again start on the difficult section of the course, paired with UTEP.
"I feel like we can really play well immediately on this course," said Thurmond. "I hope that happens tomorrow as this course is more scorable than it has been in years."
