LA QUINTA -- Coming off a recording-setting, victory-filled two-week span, the BYU men's golf team faced the challenging Greg Norman Course and shot a two-round 629 to finish the day at No. 11.
After going 79-under the last two tournaments, the Cougars shot an uncharacteristic 53-over through two rounds. Senior Greg Machtaler said the difficult course caused some problems for the Cougars.
"I've never played a course that tough," Machtaler said. "It exposed all of your weaknesses."
Machtaler said the team had the mindset it needed to get low scores, with birdies and eagles much like the previous tournaments, but he said that's not the case at The Prestige.
"Our mindset wasn't right," he said. "We needed to realize 75 is good here. We just started pressing too much."
BYU coach Bruce Brockbank said he knew the course would be challenging, but he didn't realize it would be so difficult. He said each shot was either in the fairway or out in the dirt and rough.
Machtaler said the course was visually intimidating. He said all the golfers could see was desert and very little green space.
The Cougars are anxious to get back on the course tomorrow, especially after having played the course twice.
"We'll hold our heads a little higher tomorrow," Brockbank said. "We just had a bad day and tomorrow we'll be a little more consistent."
The senior duo of Machtaler and Oscar Alvarez was the Cougars' most consistent golfers of the day. Each shot an 11-over to finish the day tied for No. 23. Machtaler said the pair is not satisfied with their standing especially after each one has already won an individual title this year.
Jake Ellison contributed to the Cougars' cause with a 15-over 159. Ron Harvey Jr. trailed Ellison by only two strokes after carding a second-round 82.
Todd Miller tallied a 166 to round out the Cougars' score for the day.
The final round of the tournament will be played tomorrow beginning at 7 a.m. The tournament can be followed live at golfstat.com or by accessing the link of the men's golf schedule at byucougars.com.
Fin. School Scores
1 UC Davis 306 303 609 (+33)
2 UCLA 302 308 610 (+34)
3 UC-Irvine 305 307 612 (+36)
4 Kansas, U. 313 305 618 (+42)
5 TCU 315 306 621 (+45)
6 Texas Tech 311 311 622 (+46)
7 Oklahoma, U. 315 308 623 (+47)
8 Oregon, U. of 312 314 626 (+50)
9 Pepperdine 314 313 627 (+51)
10 Stanford University 313 315 628 (+52)
11 Brigham Young Univ. 315 314 629 (+53)
12 Notre Dame, U. of 311 322 633 (+57)
T13 Colorado 318 318 636 (+60)
T13 Pacific 317 319 636 (+60)
15 Northern Colorado 320 335 655 (+79)
16 Yale University 336 329 665 (+89)
BYU Individual Results
Fin. Golfer Scores
T23 Oscar Alvarez 77 78 155 (+11)
T23 Greg Machtaler 79 76 155 (+11)
T38 Jake Ellison 80 79 159 (+15)
T52 Ron Harvey, Jr. 79 82 161 (+17)
T67 Todd Miller 85 81 166 (+22)
84 participants