SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Keanu Akina sits in a tie for fifth after posting the round of the day for No. 43 BYU men's golf Monday afternoon at the Western Intercollegiate. The Cougars fired a 2-over 352, currently sitting in fifth place.
"Our guys played solid today but we just didn't make enough putts," said BYU director of golf Todd Miller. "We put ourselves in good positions but didn’t take enough advantage of the par 5s. We were last in the field in par-5 scoring in comparison to the leaders that went between 10-15 under. We'll regroup and get ourselves back into contention tomorrow."
After an early bogey on hole two, Akina proceeded to make two birdies in a four-hole stretch to make the turn at 1-under. Another bogey on hole 10 dropped Akina back to even par before back-to-back birdies on holes 11 and 12, followed by a hole-out eagle on the par-4 16th hole to finish his round at 4-under.
"Keanu played a great round today," said Miller. "At Pasatiempo, you have to just be patient, and play steady golf which is exactly what he did. He also helped himself with a chip-in on 11, canning a 35-footer on 12, and then holing out for eagle on 16."
Tyson Shelley found himself in a tie for 18th after day one as he fired a 1-under 69. Shelley got off to a hot start, making birdies on three of his first six holes to shoot a front-nine 32. A 2-over-par second nine featured Shelley's fourth birdie on the day at the par-4 17th hole before making par at the par-3 18th.
No. 50 California (334) leads the field with a 16-under first round, edging out No. 22 Oregon's (335) 15-under round. No. 8 Stanford sits in 3rd after shooting a 339 11-under round as a team, with No. 9 Pepperdine (345) in fourth after a 5-under day. Rounding out the top five is No. 23 Colorado State along with BYU after each team's 352 round.
Max Brenchley currently sits in a tie for 40th after a first-round 71. David Timmins is tied for 52nd heading into day two, shooting 72 while Carson Lundell shot a 74 and Zac Jones rounded out the scoring for the Cougars with a 75.
The Cougars will tee it up with San Jose State in the second round, beginning at 9:58 PDT with live scoring available at golfstat.com.