TUSCON -- Freshman Jordan Rodgers and junior Robbie Fillmore played strong second rounds to lead the Cougars to a sixth-place finish with one round remaining at the 2009 Mountain West Conference championships.
The Cougars are currently at even-par after shooting 14 strokes better in the second round and trail third-place teams New Mexico, Colorado State and San Diego State by five strokes.
“We played better today,” said BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank. “We had a good front nine under great playing conditions and were making birdies, but then hit some bogeys and pars on the back nine when UNLV and CSU started making their birdies.”
Rodgers played the best round for the team, jumping from 34th place to ninth with a 5-under 66 in the second round and is currently at 1-under-par. Five birdies and zero bogeys on the day allowed him to shoot nine strokes better in the second round than the first as he totaled 13 holes made at par.
Fillmore also made a big run with a 4-under 67 in the second round and is tied with Rodgers in ninth place, arriving from 31st place after the opening round as he shot seven strokes better on Friday. He made four birdies on the day and also did not have a single bogey.
“Rodgers and Fillmore played a nice round for us,” Brockbank said. “I was glad Rodgers stepped up as a freshman and Fillmore played strong with several birdies to help us stay in it.”
Overall, the Cougars shot 9-under on the front nine and 2-over on the back nine.
Brady Johnson played a solid 1-over second round to end up in 16th place at even-par. He scored a total of 15 holes at par and enjoyed a great front nine in which he had one birdie and eight holes at par.
Esteban Calisto is at 9-over-par following a 1-over second round, shooting seven strokes better than his 8-over first round. He made four birdies on the day and scored nine holes at par.
Nick Killpack had a 6-over second round to end up at 7-over-par. He scored one birdie and completed 13 holes at par, including six in a row on the back nine.
“We did really well on the front nine today, but struggled to match it on the back nine,” Brockbank said. “On Saturday we hope to play low scores and get everyone to contribute so we can mess up the order of the ranked teams ahead of us.”
TCU leads the field at 12-under-par, with New Mexico’s Steve Saunders leading the individual field.
The tournament will continue Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and can be followed on golfstat.com.
2009 MWC Championships
BYU 6th/9 E 291-277--568
T9 Rodgers 75-66 -1
T9 Fillmore 74-67 -1
16 Johnson 70-72 E
T36 Killpack 72-77 +7
T42 Calisto 79-72 +9
The MWC
1 (16) TCU -12
2 (34) UNLV -8
T3 (38) New Mexico -5
T3 (32) Colorado State -5
T3 (22) San Diego State -5
6 BYU E
7 Wyoming +11
8 Utah +15
9 Air Force +23