TEMPE -- Following two great rounds of play at the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational, the BYU men’s golf team finds itself tied for ninth place at 13-over-par in a field of 17 teams.
The Cougars placed ahead of ranked schools Arizona, Colorado State, New Mexico and UNLV while trailing Cal and San Diego State by just a few strokes.
“We had a pretty good day,” said head coach Bruce Brockbank. “We had streaks where we’d get a few birdies in but then follow them with bogeys and double bogeys. We need to adjust to the fast greens and hard ground to make our putts and do a better job with our chipping onto the green.”
Leading the way for the team is Robbie Fillmore, who currently sits in 16th place overall at 1-over-par. He played a great opening round by shooting a 2-under 69 after scoring five birdies, including consecutive holes on hole seven and eight. Three of the birdies were made in the front nine. In the second round, he made two more birdies, both of which occurred on hole No. 2 and 17 that he birdied in the first round.
“Robbie played great today and is just a few strokes from the top,” Brockbank said.
Nick Killpack, Brady Johnson and Esteban Calisto are all tied for the No. 42 spot at 4-over-par. Johnson and Calisto scored 2-over in both rounds while Killpack played a great opening round at even-par 71 with two birdies. Killpack scored an eagle on par-4 hole two in the second round and followed it with a birdie on the third hole.
Johnson scored two birdies in both rounds, twice occurring on par-4 hole No. 2. Calisto scored an eagle on par-5 hole No. 14 along with a birdie in the first round to go along with a two-birdie effort in the second round. He scored a birdie on par-4 hole No. 1 in both rounds.
Freshman Jordan Rodgers also played consistently by making four birdies on the day. Redshirt freshman Daniel Reid saw his first action of the season as he played individually for the Cougars. Reid shot a 2-over 73 opening round.
“Our first round was a bit better because there wasn’t as much wind,” Brockbank said. “Then we had 30-40 mile winds in the second round and it affected everyone a little bit. Hopefully we can come out on Saturday and play a great round by respecting the speed of the greens and having better ball placement on our chips.”
Round three begins at 9:30 a.m. MT for the Cougars. Live stats can be followed on golfstat.com.
2009 ASU Thunderbird Invitational
BYU
T16 Fillmore 69-74 +1
T42 Killpack 71-75 +4
T42 Johnson 73-73 +4
T42 Calisto 73-73 +4
T89 Rodgers 76-80 +14
T73 Reid* 73-77 +8
The field
1 (28) Arizona State -9
2 Denver -2
3 (9) TCU +2
4 UC-Irvine +5
5 (20) San Diego State +9
T6 (36) Cal +10
T6 (28) Arizona State (B) +10
8 Oklahoma +11
T9 (38) Oregon +13
T9 Ball State +13
T9 BYU +13
T12 (33) Arizona +14
T12 (34) Colorado State +14
14 Fresno State +19
15 CS-Northridge +20
T16 (39) New Mexico +21
T16 (24) UNLV +21