Two Cougars in top-10 after day one, team sits in fourth

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Behind two top-10 finishes from Patrick Fishburn and Spencer Dunaway, BYU men's golf sits in fourth place after day one of the Desert Shootout, Friday.

"It was great to see the guys step up after a difficult first few holes," BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "We put up some big numbers as a team at the beginning, but we turned it around and finished out the round well. I saw baby steps of improvement today. Patrick [Fishburn] played great, and I saw great play from Spencer [Dunaway] and Kai [Ruiz]. We are excited to play in the leader group in the final round tomorrow. I hope we can see more consistent play and a better overall short game."

As a team BYU shot 15 under through 36 holes, shooting 8 under in round one and 7 under in round two. Three out of the four scored players for the Cougars shot under par through two rounds today: Fishburn (-7), Dunaway (-6) and Ruiz (-2).

Fishburn, who tied for 28th individually at the Lamkin Invitational earlier in the week, is tied for fifth place after the first 36 holes of play. In the first round of 18, Fishburn shot 1 under. He shot 6 under in the second round, shooting 4 under on the front nine. His second round score of 66 was the lowest round shot by any Cougar on Friday. Fishburn birdied 11 holes on the day.

Dunaway shot a pair of 69s in today’s day of play. He also birdied 11 holes through 36 holes. Dunaway birdied four consecutive holes (5-8) in round one, and in round two he birdied four straight holes (4-7) again. Dunaway is tied for 10th place individually after the tournament’s first day.

Kaimakani Ruiz shot a team-low 68 in the first round of play. Ruiz eagled two holes, the fifth and 12th, in round one. Ruiz finished the day birdying five holes, and is tied for 29th overall.

Austen Christiansen shot 1 over through 36 holes. Christiansen shot even par in the first round and 1 over in round two. He is tied for 54th place. Zach Pritchard shot 5 over par on the day and is tied for 83rd.

BYU men’s golf will play the third and final round of the Desert Shootout on Saturday. Scoring can be followed live.

Desert Shootout - March 18, 2016