FRESNO, Calif. — In its season-opening tournament, Gonzaga men's golf is in 12th place after the first two rounds of the Nick Watney Invitational hosted by Fresno State at the San Joaquin Country Club.
The Zags are 29-over (597) entering Tuesday's final round. GU opened the day at 13-over (297) in Round 1, before totaling 300 (+16) in the second round. The Bulldogs' 119 pars are the second-most in the 14-team field.
Gonzaga's
Holden Backes carded a 72 (+1) in the opening round, before a four-over (75) second round. He made 13 pars in Round 1, and 12 in the second. Backes is tied for 35th at five-over (147).
In his GU debut,
Clayton Thatcher sits at six-over (148) after Day 1. He opened with a 73 (+2) and was four-over (75) in Round 2. He had 11 pars in the first round and 12 in Round 2.
Zach Stocker is tied for 53rd at nine-over. The Spokane native had a 75 (+4) first round and a 76 (+5) in the second round.
Charlie Magruder (+13, 155) and
Andrew Reinhardt (+15, 157) are in 75th and 78th place.
"Our par 5 scoring really hurt us today," Gonzaga Head Coach
Robert Gray said. "We played the six par 5's in +20 for all five guys. The leader was -12. You just can't have a high finish when giving up 32 shots on six total par 5's to the leading team. We struggled to get the ball in play off the tee along with hitting the par 5's in regulation to get birdie opportunities and easy pars. We just have to be better in this area to start."
CSU-Northridge's Felix Schrott tops the leaderboard at seven-under (135), while Fresno State's Seldon Doyle and Michael Cliff are both two strokes back. Fresno State leads the team leaderboard at eight-under (560), after a five-under (279) second round.
Tuesday's final round tees off at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring will be available on GoZags.com.
