HONOLULU -- It was a tough day for the BYU men's golf team, as it fell from sixth place to 11th place in the second round of the John A. Burns Intercollegiate. The Cougars were led by their two freshmen in shooting a round of 297 (+9) at the Leilehua Golf Course.
"I'm seeing some good things, but I'm also seeing some things I'm not really happy about," said BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank. "Basically our short games are really, really suspect."
All five Cougar golfers shot rounds above par. BYU was led by freshmen Ron Harvey Jr. and Greg Matchaler who carded identical rounds of 73 (+1). Harvey leads all Cougars with a two round score of 144 (E), and individually he stands in a tie for 13th overall. He is eight shots off the pace, behind San Diego State golfer John Lieber (136, -8).
Junior Jared Overton shot a personal spring high 74 (+2). It was the usually steady BYU seniors that struggled on Thursday. After shooting rounds of even par on Wednesday, Manuel Merizalde and Kyle Wight both carded scores of 77 (+5).
"We need Manuel," Brockbank said. "For us to be a good team, Manuel needs to play well."
BYU is only in its second spring tournament, with limited opportunities to practice, but Brockbank refuses to make excuses.
"You can use the excuse of cold weather, but I'm not going to go that far," Brockbank said. "I just think we need to step up a bit better."
Through the first two rounds of the tournament, BYU has shot 588 (+12), and is 19 shots behind leader San Diego State (569, -7).
The third and final round of the John A. Burns Intercollegiate will be played Friday, Feb. 22, starting at 7:30 a.m. (HST).
t13 Ron Harvey, Jr. BYU 71-73 E
t42 Manuel Merizalde BYU 72-77 +5
t42 Kyle Wight BYU 72-77 +5
t42 Greg Machtaler BYU 76-73 +5
t56 Jared Overton BYU 77-74 +7
Fin. School Scores
1 SanDiego State U. 274-295 -7
2 Auburn University 288-288 E
3 UNLV 289-290 +3
4 New Mexico, U. of 287-294 +5
5 Pacific, U. of the 294-288 +6
6 Colorado State Univ. 295-288 +7
7 California, U. of 296-289 +9
8 UCLA 295-291 +10
9 Hawaii, Univ. of 288-299 +11
Arizona, U. of 299-288 +11
11 Brigam Young Univ. 291-297 +12
12 Denver, U. of 297-292 +13
13 Hawaii,-Hilo, U. of 295-298 +17
14 Utah, Univ of 298-296 +18
15 Nagoya 306-291 +21
16 San Jose State Univ. 302-298 +24
17 Texas El Paso, U. of 305-299 +28
18 Wyoming, U. of 317-290 +31
19 San Francisco, U. of 305-307 +36
20 Hawaii-White 330-312 +66