LA QUINTA -- Lightning and steady rain kept the BYU men's golf team from finishing the second round of The Prestige in water-logged La Quinta, Calif., on Monday.
The Cougars teed off on the challenging par-72 Greg Norman Course at PGA West in the acclaimed tournament that continues to draw nationally recognized competition. Ranked No. 15 in Golfweek, BYU joins five other Top-25 teams at The Prestige, including two-time defending tournament champion UCLA (No. 10), No. 12 Texas, No. 16 Pepperdine, No. 18 Colorado and No. 22 Notre Dame.
After completing between 15 and 17 holes in Round 2, which was delayed by heavy rain and lightning, the Cougars will wait until Tuesday morning to finish their round before beginning the third and final round. As it stands now, with some teams finishing as few as 12 holes in Round 2, BYU is in fifth place at 8-over-par after scoring a first-round 295 (+7).
"We played decently today, and a 295 is not a bad score," BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said.
Although the constant rain made the course longer, it softened the greens, which Brockbank said were rock-hard during the practice round on Saturday, making the short game more manageable.
Junior Clay Ogden is tied for eighth place on the individual leader board after seven birdies carried him to a team-low 1-under performance with two holes to go in Round 2. Junior Jake Ellison is close behind at even par in a tie for 11th.
"I didn't make too many mistakes today," Ogden said. "I just need to keep hitting my driver on the fairways and take advantage of opportunities to get pars."
The Cougars are trying to reverse a trend of mediocre and inconsistent opening rounds in tournaments this season, and the fifth-place standing is the highest BYU has enjoyed after two rounds this year. Although Brockbank said there were solid performances on Monday, he said there is still a lot his team needs to improve on.
"We're still plagued by some good play and then some inconsistency," he said. "A 295 is good, but it's still not the score we want in the first round. We're making improvement, but we definitely still have some work to do. We're playing on the toughest course we'll play on this season, and some teams are playing it better than we are."
UCLA is alone at the top with a 12-stroke lead over second-place Stanford. The Bruins were the only team to finish below par (-8) after Day 1.
The Cougars will play the third round and finish the tournament Tuesday after completing Round 2 beginning at 7 a.m. Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
Standings (relative to par) are current after rain-shortened Round 2.
Only final Round 1 scores are included.
Fin. School Rd. 1 Current
1 UCLA 280 (-8)
2 Stanford 291 (+4)
T3 UC Irvine 293 (+5)
T3 Illinois 293 (+5)
5 BYU 295 (+8)
6 Texas 297 (+11)
7 Pepperdine 297 (+13)
T8 California 297 (+14)
T8 Colorado 290 (+14)
10 Notre Dame 296 (+16)
11 Northern Colorado 296 (+17)
12 UC Davis 306 (+21)
13 Oregon 298 (+24)
14 Ohio State 302 (+25)
15 Pacific 303 (+29)
16 UC Santa Barbara 313 (+32)
17 Yale 295 (+33)
18 Kansas 309 (+39)
BYU Individual Results
Fin. Golfer Rd. 1 Current
T8 Clay Ogden 73 (-1)
T11 Jake Ellison 74 (E)
T21 Nick Becker 74 (+3)
T60 Nick Killpack 77 (+9)
T60 Oscar Alvarez 74 (+9)