Eighth At The Otter
10/22/2013 4:43:00 AM | Men's Golf
SEASIDE, Calif. --- After shooting a 601 through two rounds, California Baptist University sits in a tie for eighth at the Otter Invitational.
In a field that features eight ranked teams, the No. 24 Lancers (20th in the Golfstat rankings), shot a 301 and followed it by dropping a stroke to 300 to play even with Cal State San Bernardino.
"Our men played very solid all-around today, we just didn't have any one guy go low,” said head coach John Hackney. “The greens were hard to read and it was cold. We just never heated up. The scores were solid, but in D-II golf, especially in a loaded field like this one, you have to have at least one player go under par to be near the top of the leaderboard.”
CBU was led by Micah Machado with a five-over 149 (75-74) and Stephen Watson shot a 151 (73-78). Glenn Hakes (78-74) and Fredrik Hansson (75-77) each posted a 152 and Neil Hand rounded out the scores with a 153 (78-75).
Tournament host Cal State Monterey Bay leads the field by 15 strokes after shooting a 10-under 566. No. 1 Barry sits in second with a 581 and No. 20 Western Washington is in third with a 591.
“We were proud of the guys for holding on nicely and finishing off their rounds because we got over par pretty quickly in the second round,” said Hackney. “Stephen put up a great first round (73), which had us in fourth place after the opening 18 holes. It just seemed like we really struggled on the long par threes. There is a big home-course advantage on those holes. We hit the ball real well off the tee, but we didn't figure out the greens and made a lot of three-putts.”
The Lancers still have a shot at a top 5 finish in the stacked field, sitting just six shots back of fifth place.
