April 9, 2011
TEMPE, Ariz. - The fourth-ranked San Diego State men's golf team is currently in second place through two rounds Saturday at the 39th annual Thunderbird Invitational at the par-71, 7,057-yard Karsten Golf Course on the campus of Arizona State. The Aztecs were in first place through the first 18 holes with a 281, but then carded a 286 in the afternoon as No. 23 USC put together a field-best second-round 13-under 271 to take the lead by nine strokes with a 10-under 558.
SDSU junior J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.), who earned medalist honors at the event last season, leads the Aztecs after day one with a 3-under 139 to tie for third place out of 75 golfers. After notching a 70 in the morning, he was at 4-under par heading into his final hole with the help of an eagle on the 10th hole. Spaun, however, logged a double bogey on the par-4 18th, snapping a streak of 127 consecutive holes played without worse than a bogey. He is still just one stroke out of second place and two behind leader Nick Delio of Cal State Northridge, who fired a 5-under 137.
Spaun is the only Aztec currently in the top 25 individually, as classmate Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) is tied for 29th place with a 145, while freshman Todd Baek (Auckland, New Zealand) is just one stroke behind him in a tie for 32nd with a 146. Senior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) opened with a 5-over 76, but then rallied for an even-par 71 with a double bogey, two birdies and 15 pars to tie for 37th with a 147.
Aztec sophomore Tom Berry (New Haw, England) had a phenomenal first round with a season-low 5-under 66, including six birdies, to tie for the lead, but then ran into trouble after carding pars on his first three holes of the second round. Berry tallied back-to-back bogeys, double bogeyed the eighth hole and then went 8-over par on the back nine to post a 83 and slide into a tie for 49th place.
Junior Colin Featherstone (Fallbrook, Calif.), who is competing as an individual, rounded out the San Diego State contingent in a tie for 37th along with Carlsson at 5-over 147.
The Aztecs, who rallied from a 10-stroke deficit with 18 holes to play in their last tournament, will tee off Sunday beginning at 8:30 a.m. PT. Live results are available on golfstat.com.
Scores with relation to par, April 9, 2011, at the 39th annual Thunderbird Invitational played at the par-71, 7,057-yard ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.
Team through 36 holes (Top 5 of 13 teams)
1 No. 23 USC 287-271-558 (-10)
2 No. 4 San Diego St. 281-286-567 (-1)
3 No. 49 Florida St. 290-283-573 (+5)
No. 40 Pepperdine 287-286-573 (+5)
5 Colorado State 285-289-574 (+6)
Top Five Individuals (Top 6 of 75 players)
1 Nick Delio, CSUN 72-65-137 (-5)
2 Steve Lim, USC 70-68-138 (-4)
3 J.J. Spaun, SDSU 70-69-139 (-3)
Zahkai Brown, CSU 70-69-139 (-3)
Max Homa, Cal 71-68-139 (-3)
Matt Siporin, CSUN 69-70-139 (-3)
Other San Diego State Golfers
T29 Alex Kang 73-72-145 (+3)
T32 Todd Baek 72-74-146 (+4)
T37 Colin Featherstone* 76-71-147 (+5)
T37 Johan Carlsson 76-71-147 (+5)
T49 Tom Berry 66-83-149 (+7)
* = competing as an individual