Chase Sienkiewicz (University of Arizona photo)
Proving the golf ball doesn't know where a team is ranked -- and quite frankly doesn't care -- the upstart Florida State Seminoles have a share of the lead with third-ranked Oklahoma State after two rounds of play at the Cabo Intercollegiate being held in Los Cabos, Mexico.
The unranked Seminoles find themselves tied with Cowboys at 18-under 550 after shooting a 6-under round of 278 today at the Cove Club. Sub-par rounds by
Frederik Kjettrup (67),
Brett Roberts (68) and
Patrick McCann (69), along with an even par 71 by
Daniel Bradbury, was enough for the Seminoles to pull even with the Cowboys.
“We had a slower start today, but we got our rhythm in the middle with Frederik shooting 4-under and Brett who were the key to our success last year," said Florida State head coach Trey Jones. "It’s great to have them play like they know they can play.
“Five scores is the key,” Jones said. “To compete against the teams that are here coming down the stretch we need to have all five guys that have the capability to put up a good round. We are going to need all five guys.”
The 36-hole team leader has held on to win seven times since the tournament began in 2010 and if the Seminoles are to pull the upset tomorrow, they will have to do it while looking the nation's third-ranked team straight in the eye.
Oklahoma State was paced by
Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra's 3-under 68 and
Bo Jin's 69 on Monday, while first-round leader
Brian Stark turned in a 1-under round of 70.
“Going into tomorrow there are lots of schools who can win so it will be a good battle,” said ninth-year Oklahoma State coach Allan Bratton. “The greens are fantastic. Hopefully, we can make our share of birdies tomorrow and end up on top.
“I liked what I saw today,” Bratton said. “We actually got off to a good start today where yesterday was a little slow out of the gates. But we ended up posting a solid round. We made a couple of big numbers and then we stubbed our toe on the two par 5s on the back nine. We didn’t take advantage of 13 and 16 at all. We showed a lot of toughness.”
Arkansas and Ole Miss are lurking in third-place at 15-under 553, while Vanderbilt (-13) rounds out the top-five.
Chacarra and Stark, along with Western Amateur champion
Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford, are part of a large pack of golfers tied for fourth place at 7-under 135, three back of 36-hole leader
Chase Sienkiewicz of Arizona, who turned in his second consecutive round of 66 to take the solo lead at 10-under 132.
"It was a great day -- I played great out there," said Sienkiewicz. "The wind was calmer, so it was scoreable. They had some tees back and some pins tucked so you had to play cautious and that was my game plan. I two-putted every par 5 today and that leads to birdies."
The Arizona junior is 8-under on the par-5s over the first two rounds and leads the field in par-5 scoring at 4.00.
At 10-under 132, Sienkiewicz has a shot at Collin Morikawa's tournament record of 16-under 197, which was turned in by the former Cal star in 2018.
Four players --
Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech,
Cole Sherwood of Vanderbilt (no bogeys),
Christian Banke of Arizona, and
Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira of Arkansas -- posted the best individual rounds of the day at 6-under 65. Banke’s score was a 13-stroke improvement from his first-round 78. He posted the most birdies of the day – 10 – but also carded a double bogey and two bogeys.
Sherwood made the biggest move of the day, jumping 25 spots into a tie for fourth, while de Oliveira, who won the South American Amateur in January, vaulted 17 spots to gain a share of second place.
Pete Kowalski contributed to this report.
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54-hole collegiate event is hosted by the
University of Arkansas.
Draws a very impressive field and is typically a
top-10 collegiate event each year.
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