BYU men's golf finishes third at the Prestige

LA QUINTA, Calif. -- In the final tournament of the fall season, The Prestige at PGA West, the BYU men's golf team captured a third-place finish Tuesday.

The Prestige, hosted by UC Davis and Stanford, has quickly become one of the nation's top collegiate golf tournaments by bringing together 15 of the nation's top academic and golf-playing universities.

The No. 24 ranked Cougars (286-289-286--861) finished just two strokes behind first place UCLA (283-295-281--859), who is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation, and one stroke behind TCU (293-280-287--860) who is ranked No. 6 in the nation.

"We had our chances coming down the stretch, but fell a couple of strokes short," head coach Bruce Brockbank said.

Individually, freshman Jake Ellison led the Cougars at six-under-par (72-69-69--210) to tie for third place and record his top career finish. Junior Todd Miller and freshman Clay Ogden both tied for 16th place at two-over-par with scores of 70-71-77--218 and 71-74-73--218 respectively. Sophomore Clay Bingham (73-75-72--220) tied for 22nd place, just short of a top-20 finish, and Oscar Alvarez (73-76-72--221) tied for 28th place.

" I was pleased with the effort of these guys," Brockbank said. "We have great kids who work hard and continue to improve."

The Cougars played against TCU, Pepperdine, UCLA, Northwestern, Colorado, Stanford, Kansas, UC Davis, Washington, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pacific, UC Irvine and Yale, a field consisting of 78 players. BYU played on the par-72 LaQuinta Mountain Course, which measures 6,841.

The top individual finisher was TCU's Colby Beckstrom (71-68-67--206) who shot 10-under-par.

BYU has recorded five top-5 finishes in all of its five fall tournaments including four third-place finishes and one fourth-place finish.

"We had a good semester with great individual scores and performances," Brockbank said. "We came up a little short in some areas, but we've learned a lot this semester."

BYU won't compete again until Feb. 18-20, 2004 at the John H. Burns Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Final Team/Individual Standings

1 UCLA 283 295 281 859

9 Chris Heintz 68 74 71 213

10 Steve Conway 72 72 70 214

T 11 Roy Moon 68 75 72 215

T 22 John Merrick 75 74 71 220

T 28 John Poucher 76 76 69 221

2 TCU 293 280 287 860

1 Colby Beckstrom 71 68 67 206

T 6 Adam Meyer 70 74 68 212

T 33 J.J. Killeen 78 69 75 222

T 45 Drew Stoltz 76 72 77 225

T 66 Jeff Marcinowski 76 71 87 234

3 Brigham Young Univ. 286 289 286 861

T 3 Jake Ellison 72 69 69 210

T 16 Todd Miller 70 71 77 218

T 16 Clay Ogden 71 74 73 218

T 22 Clay Bingham 73 75 72 220

T 28 Oscar Alvarez 73 76 72 221

4 Pepperdine Univ. 284 294 285 863

5 Michael Putnam 68 73 70 211

13 Alex Coe 72 75 69 216

T 16 Brian O'Flaherty 71 74 73 218

T 28 Chris Elliott 73 74 74 221

T 33 Randy Creighton 76 73 73 222

T 5 Colorado, U. of 286 293 289 868

T 6 Kane Webber 73 71 68 212

T 14 Jeff Hanson 70 74 73 217

T 20 Kenny Coakley 70 74 75 219

T 40 Derek O'Neill 76 74 73 223

T 49 Edward McGlasson 73 76 78 227

T 5 Northwestern 286 292 290 868

T 3 Tom Johnson 67 75 68 210

T 11 Dillon Dougherty 73 71 71 215

T 40 Bryson Young 71 77 75 223

T 42 Casey Strunk 76 72 76 224

T 60 T.C. Ford 75 74 82 231

7 Kansas, U. of 284 303 289 876

T 14 Andrew Price 72 74 71 217

T 22 Kevin Ward 70 75 75 220

T 33 Gary Woodland 69 82 71 222

T 47 Tyler Docking 77 77 72 226

T 57 Ryan Rainer 73 77 80 230

8 UC Davis 290 300 287 877

T 6 Eric Restrepo 71 74 67 212

T 22 Scott Gordon 74 77 69 220

T 28 Brett Borchers 69 76 76 221

T 42 Louie Bishop 76 73 75 224

77 Chris Kilkenny 78 84 82 244

9 Washington, U. of 301 290 295 886

T 20 Dan Potter 74 71 74 219

T 22 Brock Mackenzie 75 74 71 220

T 33 Alex Prugh 75 72 75 222

T 45 Erik Olson 77 73 75 225

76 Reid Rader 78 83 80 241

10 Stanford University 283 302 303 888

2 Zack Miller 67 67 74 208

T 22 Kevin Blue 68 73 79 220

T 60 Kyle Gentry 71 83 77 231

T 66 Pat Phillips 79 79 76 234

T 73 Brandon Lawson 77 85 76 238

11 Oklahoma, U. of 301 295 300 896

T 33 Anthony Kim 75 73 74 222

T 33 Blake Martin 78 73 71 222

T 49 Brodie Flanders 72 75 80 227

T 55 Martin Flores 79 74 75 228

78 Brad Purcell 76 85 91 252

12 UC-Irvine 303 302 299 904

T 16 Vinnie Poncino 71 70 77 218

T 49 Neno Boonyaplanun 76 76 75 227

T 66 Derek Uyesaka 82 79 73 234

70 Ryne Rindfleisch 77 84 74 235

71 Will Park 79 77 80 236

13 Pacific, U. of the 301 301 304 906

T 42 Matt Kern 73 74 77 224

T 55 Andrew Bostrom 78 75 75 228

T 57 Troy McKinley 77 74 79 230

T 60 Miles Kirkpatrick 73 78 80 231

72 Reid Scarff 86 78 73 237

14 Oregon, U. of 297 302 309 908

T 49 Mike Sica 74 75 78 227

T 49 Gregg LaVoie 77 76 74 227

T 49 Dustin Pewarchuk 72 76 79 227

T 57 Matt Ma 75 75 80 230

T 64 Jimmy White 76 79 78 233

15 Yale University 303 311 308 922

T 47 Brian Kim 79 72 75 226

T 60 Steve Gray 73 79 79 231

T 64 Rick Reissman 75 82 76 233

T 66 Dan Levy 77 78 79 234

T 73 Benjamin Levy 78 82 78 238