THOUSAND OAKS -- Just two days removed from the John A. Burns Invitational in Hawaii, the BYU men’s golf team continued to play with momentum as Brady Johnson and Jordan Hammer led the team to a 2nd–place finish after two rounds at the USC Intercollegiate.
Playing on the tough par-71 North Ranch Country Club in a field with some of the top golf programs on the West coast, the Cougars ended the day at 6-under-par in second place, just two stokes behind Stanford for the top spot. Third-place California sits nine strokes behind at 3-over-par.
“The boys are getting after it,” said head coach Bruce Brockbank. “It’s exciting to see the team play so well on a very tough golf course. After not finishing well in the tournament in Hawaii, we’re playing with confidence and hitting more putts.”
In the opening round, freshman Jordan Hammer and junior Brady Johnson set the tone for the Cougars as both finished the round at 3-under-par 68 and tied for second place in the field of 79 golfers. Both finished at even-par 71 in the second round to lead the team still tied at No. 2 overall.
Johnson ended the day with eight birdies overall, including making a tough shot out of a bunker to maintain his score. Hammer made an eagle in the opening round and totaled nine birdies in the two rounds.
“Johnson is playing very well right now and displaying good leadership,” Brockbank said. “Hammer is plugging along and doing great things for us.”
Following closely were teammates Nick Killpack and Robbie Fillmore, who are currently tied for the No. 15 spot in the field at even-par. Killpack made eight birdies between the rounds and Fillmore contributed six to go along with an impressive one-bogey first round performance.
Topping off the field for BYU was freshman Stephen Archibald, who sits at No. 50 at 8-over-par after making seven birdies on the day. Jordan Rodgers and Esteban Calisto are competing individually.
BYU led the field after the first round at 9-under-par, but Stanford came back from even-par to have an 8-under-par second round to pull ahead of the Cougars, who finished the round at 3-over-par.
“Our team hasn’t been in contention like this for many of our tournaments this year,” Brockbank said. “We’ve got to stay aggressive tomorrow, hit our putts, and make a run at Stanford.”
The Cougars will begin the third round Tuesday at 9 a.m. MT. They can be followed on golfstat.com.
2009 USC Intercollegiate
BYU 275-287 -6
T2 Hammer 68-71 -3
T2 Johnson 68-71 -3
T15 Fillmore 69-73 E
T15 Killpack 70-72 E
T50 Archibald 73-77 +8
T50 Calisto* 77-73 +8
T50 Rodgers* 72-78 +8
* - individual
The field
1 (7) Stanford -8
2 BYU -6
3 (29) California +3
T4 UC-Irvine +11
T4 (19) UCLA +11
6 (9) Washington +12
7 (39) Pepperdine +15
8 (4) USC +16
T9 Pacific +19
T9 (28) San Diego St. +19
11 Fresno St. +20
12 Oregon St. +28
13 Loyola Marymount +30