TUCSON, AZ (Thursday May 18, 2006)--The No. 8 ranked BYU men's golf team shot six-under-par as a team Thursday and find themselves tied for fourth place after the first round of the NCAA West Regional tournament.
Leading the Cougar charge was MWC player of the year, Jake Ellison, who shot a four-under 68 at the OMNI Tucson National course. Ellison had a stretch of four straight birdies on holes 8 through 11.
"Jake got really hot for a stretch there," head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "Overall, I thought that our guys had a decent day."
Junior, Nick Becker, also had a good round shooting a two-under 70 which included an eagle on the second hole. Becker was at four-under after the 16th, but ended up bogeying the last two holes.
"We had a lot of missed putts today," Brockbank said. "A lot of the bogeys just came down to poor putting."
The Cougars look to catch No. 2 ranked Florida who is at the top of the leaderboard at 15-under par. The Gators are followed by Arizona and Fresno State at eight and nine-under-par respectively.
Coach Brockbank said he expects the Cougars to play a lot better tomorrow. "We have a great tee-time tomorrow and there is no reason that we shouldn't go out and shoot 10 to 15-under-par."
The Cougars tee-off at 7 am Friday morning. Live coverage is available at golfstat.com.
Team Results
1 Florida -15
2 Arizona -9
3 Fresno State -8
T4 Brigham Young Univ. -6
T4 North Carolina State -6
T4 Nevada, Univ. of -6
T7 Stanford University -5
T7 Pepperdine -5
T7 UC-Irvine -5
T10 Arizona State U. -4
T10 East Tennessee St. -4
T10 Loyola Marymount U. -4
Individual Results
T6 Jake Ellison 68 (-4)
T26 Nick Becker 70 (-2)
T51 Oscar Alvarez 72 (E)
T51 Clay Ogden 72 (E)
T70 Daniel Summerhays 73 (+1)