With the University of Colorado men’s golf team having lost two of its top three players from last season — David Oraee and Yannik Paul — the opportunity to help fill a void is certainly at hand this fall.
And several home-grown players — all graduates of Colorado high schools — are doing their best to address the issue.
That was apparent the last two days at CU’s own Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational at Boulder Country Club.
Three Coloradans finished in the top 11 out of a field of 74, including freshmen Ross Macdonald and Wilson Belk. And junior Ethan Freeman and Macdonald, who established and tied their best college finishes, respectively, on Tuesday by sharing fifth place, played major roles in helping the Buffs tie for the team title.
For the third consecutive year — and fourth overall — CU earned a least part of the team championship at the Simpson Invite. Against all odds, they’ve tied for the title two of the last three years, this time with Missouri-Kansas City.
The Buffs (left) rallied from five strokes behind entering last round to shoot a Tuesday-best 1-under-par 279. That left them and the Roos at 7-over-par 847 for three rounds.
And besides their overall solid play, Macdonald and Freeman helped seal the deal for CU on the final hole.
Macdonald drained a very fast downhill 5-foot putt for bogey. Then junior Jeremy Paul, Yannik’s twin brother, chipped in for birdie on that same hole from 30 feet. And Freeman made an impressive up and down from a greenside bunker, sinking a challenging sidehill 4-footer for par. (Freeman is pictured at top getting congratulated by CU head coach Roy Edwards.)
And the Buffs needed all three of those things to happen to earn a tie for the title.
“The whole team is riding on you,” said Freeman, who was in the final group. “You’re the last guy in. I had to make that putt or we wouldn’t have tied for the win, so I definitely felt the nerves. I knew I had to pull it out for my team.
“That was huge for me. We’re at our home event and this is the one we want to win every year. That putt definitely meant a lot. It was just (4) feet, but that felt like a really long putt. I was real excited to make that.”
As for two-time CGA Junior Stroke Play champion Macdonald (at left preparing to fist-bump with CU assistant coach Pat Grady), CU coach Roy Edwards was likewise impressed by his play, especially given that he’s in his first month of college golf.
“That’s one big thing for Ross Macdonald,” Edwards said. “He’s come right in and been a huge part of our success early in the season. We’ve got some good talented young players. It’s always a developmental process. They’re in the middle of it and sometimes it doesn’t feel as good as other days. They’re doing a lot of really good things. There are some growing pains, but I actually enjoy it because you get to see guys (make strides, and) the fruition is guys like Philip (Juel-Berg, a senior) and Jeremy and Ethan. That’s what those young guys are going to be in a couple of years. They’re thrown right into the fire right now.”
All told, CU put five individuals in the top 11 Tuesday, with Jeremy Paul (210) finishing third — marking the 12th top-10 of his career — Macdonald and Freeman (212) sharing fifth, and Juel-Berg (213) tying for 11th. Belk, competing solely as an individual, also shared 11th place.
Freeman, a two-time state high school champion from Kent Denver, has recorded three fifth-place individual finishes so far this season.
While the Coloradans certainly made their contributions on Tuesday, Paul had the most impressive moment of the day. With CU trailing UMKC by a stroke, he spun his approach shot off the front of the final green, then proceeded to hole out his chip (left) for birdie, tying things up.
“I was trying to make it because I knew we needed to make up one shot,” said the native of Germany. “Usually it never goes in (under those circumstances), but this time it did so it was really emotional. It’s just important for us as a team to at least share the victory. I was just super excited about it.”
UMKC’s Antoine Rozner, No. 53 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, claimed the individual title Tuesday, though he missed a 15-foot birdie attempt on No. 18 that would have given the Roos the outright team championship. He shot a 1-under-par 69 Tuesday for a 2-under 208 total.
While the Buffs notched their second team victory of the season — the first came in a three-team field at Ballyneal — Air Force (878) placed seventh on Tuesday and Northern Colorado (885) was 10th.
A small junior-golf event was held in conjunction with the Simpson Invitational. Fairview High School golfer Daniel Pearson, from Longmont, posted the low 54-hole total for the group, a 17-over-par 227. Here are the scores of all the junior players who competed:
Daniel Pearson 73-76-78–227
Cole Krantz 80-75-73–228
Timothy Amundson 80-80-76–236
Jackson Solem 81-77-80–238
Austin Burgess 82-82-80–244
Boulder Country Club will host the men’s Pac-12 Conference Championships in the spring of 2017.
Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational
At Par-70 Boulder CC
T1. (out of 12 teams) Colorado 275-293-279–847
3. Jeremy Paul 67-75-68–210
T5. Ethan Freeman 69-72-71–212
T5. Ross Macdonald 67-75-70–212
11. Philip Juel-Berg 72-71-70–213
47. Kade Crossland 74-76-74–224
CU Players Competing Only as Individuals
11. Wilson Belk 73-69-71–213
53. Drew Trujillo 77-72-77–226
58. Pierce Aichinger 76-76-76–228
7. Air Force 289-293-296–878
16. Brenden Bone 71-73-72–216
27. Sunwoo Choi 71-74-74–219
41. Bryant Falconello 76-72-74–222
58. Kyle Fuller 71-81-76–228
61. Michael Fan 77-74-78–229
Competing as Individuals
45. Tate Tatom, Air Force 72-74-77–223
64. Dan Hankamer 78-75-75–230
66. Troy Berglund 74-79-79–232
10. Northern Colorado 293-288-304–885
16. Conner Barr 74-68-74–216
35. Steven Kupcho 70-70-81–221
35. Joshua Matz 75-74-72–221
61. Sam Marley 75-76-78–229
68. Julian Woodfork 74-79-80–233
Competing as Individual
47. Li Chen 74-77-73–224
Also
27. Colton Yates, Colorado State 73-71-75–219
27. Blake Cannon, Colorado State 73-72-74–219
47. Coloradan Glenn Workman, Wyoming 75-76-73–224
