Golfers Finish Fourth At Bandon Dunes Championship

                BANDON, Ore. — The University of Colorado men's golf team rebounded with the third-best score in the final round but it wasn't enough to make a move as the Buffaloes finished fourth here Tuesday in the 8th Annual Bandon Dunes Championship.

                No. 8 Oregon started and finished with double-digit rounds under par in running away with the tournament, as the Ducks finished 28-under par with a team score of 836. No. 9 Texas Tech held off No. 87 Oregon State and the Buffaloes to finish second with a 7-under 857 score; the Beavers moved up by shooting the second-best score in the final round (a 4-under 284); and were one back of the Red Raiders and were two ahead of CU.

                Colorado, ranked 21st, wrapped things up with 3-under 285 score for an 860 overall score (4-under) in finishing fourth. It was the ninth time in as many tournaments that the Buffaloes posted a top five finish, a school record besting eight top five finishes in 1992-93 and 2013-14. No. 12 Texas A&M rounded out the top five with an 869 score, and CU also earned another Top 25 win with No. 23 Auburn finishing in ninth.

               "Overall, a solid tournament," CU head coach Roy Edwards said. "Today was a much better day than yesterday, so even though we finished in the same spot, we were solo in fourth and played pretty well overall. We beat some good teams in the process."

                Senior Jeremy Paul led the Buffaloes in tying for sixth individually with a 5-under 211 scorecard, as he finished with an even-par effort Tuesday for the tournament on the 6,893-yard, par-72 Old MacDonald Course layout. He was a model of consistency all week, leading the Buffs with 13 birdies along with 33 pars against eight bogeys. He tied for the sixth-most birdies in the 90-man field.

                Junior Yannik Paul tied for 14th after recording one of just seven scores in the 60s in the final round, as his 3-under 69 pushed him to 1-under 215 overall. He recorded CU's fourth-bogey free round this year with three birdies and 15 pars to wrap things up here, and also tied for fourth for pars in the meet (38) and for sixth in par-4 scoring, playing those holes collectively at 1-under for the week.

                Senior Ethan Freeman fashioned a 1-under 71 for a 219 overall total (3-over), which tied him for 26th place. He had four birdies and 11 pars against three bogeys, with his 37 pars for the week the sixth-most in the field. He ended his day with a birdie on the par-3 5th to get into red numbers.

                Junior John Souza tied for 42nd after carding a second straight 1-over 73, finishing up with a 7-over 222 score. He was within one stroke of par all week, as he had nine birdies, 30 pars and 15 bogeys, with two, 13 and three of each respectively Tuesday.

                Junior Spencer Painton had an "all over the map" kind of day to end his play here, though when things settled, he fired a 3-over 75 for an eight over 224, which placed him 50th. Starting on No. 8, he would go four-over par after five holes, but eventually got back down to even, thanks to birdies on Nos. 5 and 6. But on his last hole, he scored a triple bogey 7 to end his afternoon. He had a team-high birdies Tuesday but offset those with three bogeys, a double and that triple. He had CU's best score in the first round with a 3-under 69.

               "Jeremy had another really good tournament, Yannik had a really good round today and Ethan came back from to finish with an under-par round as well," Edwards said. "We got off to a little bit of a rough start, but we played the tougher holes—9 through 12—overall well."

               Edwards is proud of how of finishing in the top five in every tournament this season, many with strong fields, as well as his Buffaloes being just one of 11 teams in the nation with a winning record (11-10) against Top 25 teams.

               "First, I believe it shows the consistency of the team, we have five very competitive players from top to bottom," he said. "If one guy is a little off, it's easy for another to pick up the slack. And second, it shows that these guys can compete with anyone, we have beaten some really good teams, and we beat two more good teams this week."

Texas Tech's Hannes Ronneblad led from wire-to-wire in claiming medalist honors, as he closed with a 2-under 70 for a 10-under 206 for the tournament. He edged Edwin Yi and Wyndham Clark, a pair of Oregon golfers, by two strokes.

The Buffaloes will return to action later this month, competing in Stanford's "The Goodwin" in Palo Alto from March 30 through April 1. It's the next-to-last tournament ahead of Colorado hosting the Pac-12 Championships at Boulder Country Club April 28-30.

NOTES: Colorado was 12-3 against Division I competition here, improving its season record to 105-18-2; it is the first criteria for qualification for the NCAA Championships (a winning record against peer institutions) … CU is 11-10 against top 25 teams this season, with the 17th-most wins ... Colorado now has two wins, two seconds, two thirds, two fourths and a fifth in eight events this season … Jeremy Paul continued to add to all three of his school records for rounds in the 60s (39), subpar rounds (65) and rounds of par or better (73) … Paul's sixth-place effort was his 21st top 10 finish of his career, also adding to that mark that he holds, but was his 27th top 20 finish, tying him for the most all-time at Colorado with Kane Webber, who had 27 in his career that spanned 1999-2004; he also tied Webber with his 29th tournament (54-holes) with scores of 220 or better, and added to his record of most tournaments under par with his 22nd (in 45 events) ... The average score for the tournament was 74.44; the second round played the toughest at 75.4.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T6.	Jeremy Paul	71-68-72—211
T14.	Yannik Paul	70-76-69—215
T26.	Ethan Freeman	73-75-71—219
T42.	John Souza	76-73-73—222
50.	Spencer Painton	69-80-75—224

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

1.	Hannes Ronneblad, Texas Tech	65-71-70—206
T2.	Edwin Yi, Oregon	69-71-68—208
T2.	Wyndham Clark, Oregon	66-74-68—208
4.	Ryan Gronlund, Oregon	69-68-72—209
5.	Cameron Champ, Texas A&M	68-71-71—210

TEAM STANDINGS

1.	Oregon	275-285-276—836
2.	Texas Tech	283-287-287—857
3.	Oregon State	286-285-284—858
4.	COLORADO	283-292-285—860
5.	Texas A&M	286-289-294—869
6.	Georgia State	286-293-293—872
7.	Seattle	298-293-285—876
8.	Auburn	284-299-295—878
8.	Denver	289-291-298—878
10.	Fresno State	291-297-292—880
11.	Washington State	290-301-290—881
12.	Boise State	291-299-296—893
13.	CSU-Northridge	296-312-292—900
14.	San Jose State	293-304-308—905
15.	Gonzaga	292-308-307—907
16.	Utah Valley	297-304-311—912

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Players Mentioned

Ethan Freeman

Spencer Painton

Jeremy Paul

Yannik Paul

John Souza