The Colorado Buffaloes men’s golf team finished in seventh place at the Pac-12 Championship at Boulder Country Club Sunday.
The tournament itself fell victim to Boulder’s unpredictable weather as snowy conditions late into Friday and Saturday suspended the completion of the second round. The committee promptly decided to shorten the tournament from 72 to 54 holes.
After the first two rounds, Colorado came into the clubhouse tied for sixth alongside the UCLA Bruins at 30-over-par. Both would be 20 shots behind the defending national champion Oregon Ducks heading into the final round.
The Buffs would go on to finish in seventh place with a team score of 45 over par, 30 shots behind Oregon, which won its first conference title since 1959.
The low scorers for the Buffaloes this weekend were junior Spencer Painton and senior Ethan Freeman who finished their three rounds at a total of 8 over par.
Freeman had mixed emotions about his performance over the weekend.
“There was a lot of good and bad,” he said. “The 36-hole day was super hard and I thought I played really well and fought well to put myself into position, and then [Sunday], I was pretty disappointed. I didn’t hit it or putt it as good as I did on Friday.”
Head coach Roy Edwards expressed his thoughts after the championship as well.
“We’re disappointed, no doubt,” Edwards said. “We certainly had higher expectations than finishing seventh, but it wasn’t from a lack of hard competitiveness from the guys. If you look at the scoreboard, we were close to finishing in fourth or fifth place and just weren’t able to get it done; our result didn’t show a lack of play.”
The rest of Colorado’s scoring consisted of junior Yannik Paul posting a total of 10 over par, while freshman Victor Bjorlow and junior John Sousa both finished their tournament with a final round of an even-par 70. Sousa finished the championship at 10-over-par and Bjorlow finished at 13 over par.
Sophomore Wilson Belk rounded out the scoring for the Buffaloes at 15 over par.
In addition to Oregon winning the Pac-12 title, redshirt senior and Denver native Wyndham Clark won medalist honors, posting a three-round score of 4 under par with all three rounds under 70.
The next chapter of Colorado’s season is yet to be determined, as the Buffaloes will find out whether they will be competing in the NCAA Regionals Thursday.
Contact CU Independent Sports Staff Writer Drew Sharek at andrew.sharek@colorado.edu.
