FRESNO, Calif. — Gonzaga men's golfer Matthew Ruel is in fifth place after the first two rounds of the Nick Watney Invitational, hosted by Fresno State at the Sunnyside Country Club.
Ruel is six-under (138), just two strokes off the leader, entering the third and final round Tuesday. Following an opening round 71 (-1), Ruel was five-under (67) in Round 2. His stellar second round included a Hole-in-One on the Par-3 sixth hole. Six of his nine birdies on the day came in the afternoon round. Ruel leads the tournament on Par-3 holes with a 2.63 (-3) average.
Zach Stocker is tied for 14th at three-under (141). His second round also included six birdies, along with eight pars. He finished Round 2 at even-par, after carding a 69 (-3) in the first round. He eagled the Par-5 ninth hole during Round 1. Stocker has the second-best average in the event on Par-5 holes at 4.38 (-5).
As a team, Gonzaga sits in fifth place at six-under (570). The Bulldogs opened the season with a 286 (-2) team total in Round 1, and had a 284 (-4) second round total.
Charlie Magruder (-1, 143) is tied for 23rd on the leaderboard, while Holden Backes (+4, 148) is tied for 36th. Magruder's 27 pars is tied for the third-most in the tournament after Day 1. Jace Minni (43rd) is seven-over (151), and Cameron Nicklos, playing as an individual, is tied for 46th at 11-over (155).
Saint Mary's holds a one-stroke lead over Loyola Marymount for first, while BYU is two strokes back. SMC is at 18-under (558) after the first two rounds. LMU's Gavin Cohen tops the individual leaderboard currently at eight-under (136). Three golfers are right behind at seven-under.
The third round begins at 8:30 Tuesday morning. Live scoring will be available on GoZags.com.
- Head Coach Robert Gray on Day One ...
"After 12 months since our last competition, it was absolutely fantastic to be back in collegiate competition! After that much time off it was hard to say how the guys would handle it emotionally but they did a great job. The weather was perfect with mild temps and very little breeze. Green speed was up a bit from the practice round so there was some adjustment needed there at the start. The greens are very small and firm on chips around the green but held full shots pretty well.
"In the first round, our veterans played pretty steady with Zach leading the way at -3 to put us in 4th place, just 2 shots off the lead. The second round brought a lot of low scores by all the teams. Matt put together a great round of 5 under, 67 after starting 2 over through his first 5 holes. His round which included a hole in one on the 135 yard 6th hole, had a big impact on us being in the middle of the pack.
"We had steady round from the other guys but just didn't make enough putts throughout the lineup to keep up with the leaders, developing some separation between the top 3 and the rest of the field. Just a couple more putts made from each of the others in the lineup is the main difference.
"We're excited to get in another round of competition tomorrow!"
