April 2, 2010
TEMPE, ARIZ. - At a tournament with seven teams ranked in the top 15 in the country, two Aztec men's sophomore golfers, J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) and Andrew Cooley (New Haw, England), find themselves among the top 11 through 36 holes Friday at the prestigious Thunderbird Invitational at the par-71, 7,057-yard Karstern Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz. Spaun is currently in second place in the 87-golfer field with a 7-under 135, trailing day-one leader Steve Lim of USC by two strokes, while Cooley is tied for 11th at 2-under 140.
Spaun jumped from a tie for eighth place all the way to second place with a 5-under 66 in the afternoon, after posting a 69 to start the day. His 66 is a career low, while his 36-hole total of 135 is four strokes better than his previous career best as an Aztec. Spaun had 13 birdies overall, including an impressive four straight to start the second round.
Cooley, meanwhile, was tied for first after a phenomenal bogey-free 18 holes in the morning, which saw him eagle the par-5 14th hole and card three birdies for a 5-under 66 to match his career low round. Cooley had three more birdies over the next 18 holes, but ended up with a 74 to move down into a seven-way tie for 11th.
The sophomore duo, however, didn't receive much help from its three other teammates, as junior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) is the next Aztec on the leaderboard in 66th place, dropping all the way from 25th place with a 6-over 77 in the afternoon. Sophomore Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) improved his first-round score by four strokes, but remains in 74th with a 150, while freshman Tom Berry (New Haw, England) is tied for 83rd with a 154.
As a team, the No. 33 Aztecs are currently tied for ninth place with No. 26 Oregon State at 4-over 572, but are only one stroke out of seventh and three out of fifth. Arizona has a two-stroke lead over No. 14 USC with a 554, as there are four schools under par for the tournament.
The 38th annual Thunderbird Invitational concludes Saturday with the final round beginning at 7 a.m. local time. SDSU is paired with both UNLV and Washington State and will tee off from the 10th hole. Live stats are available on goaztecs.com, as well as golfstat.com.
38th annual Thunderbird Invitational
Tempe, Ariz. - April 2-3
Karsten Golf Course - Par 71, 7,057 yards
Results Through Two Rounds
Team Scoring (Top 10 teams out of 16)
1 Arizona 278-276-554 (-14) 2 USC 278-278-556 (-12) 3 UCLA 281-277-558 (-10) 4 Arizona St. 291-276-567 (-1) 5 Oregon 287-282-569 (+1) UC Irvine 290-279-569 (+1) 7 Washington 287-284-571 (+3) Stanford 281-290-571 (+3) 9 San Diego State 282-290-572 (+4) Oregon State 292-290-572 (+4)
Individuals (Top 4 Individuals out of 89)1 Steve Lim, USC 68-65-133 (-9) 2 J.J. Spaun, SDSU 69-66-135 (-7) 3 John Chin, UCI 72-64-136 (-6) Kevin Tucker, Wash. St. 68-68-136 (-6)
San Diego State 2 J.J. Spaun 69-66-135 (-7) T11 Andrew Cooley 66-74-140 (-2) T66 Johan Carlsson 71-77-148 (+6) T74 Alex Kang 77-73-150 (+8) T83 Tom Berry 76-78-154 (+12)