EUGENE, Ore. – Led by
Kyler Dunkle's season-low round of 7-under par (64) in the second round of play, the Utah men's golf team climbed to fifth place at the Pac-12 Championship following the first two rounds of action. The conference tournament is being held at the Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Utah shot 10-over par (365) in the first round of action on Monday, but then the Utes were able to put together a second-round score of 4-under par (351) to close out the day. Utah will head into the third round of play in fifth place with a 36-hole score of 6-over par.
UCLA and No. 17-ranked Stanford are tied for the lead with 36-hole team scores of 5-under par. No. 12-ranked California (-3) is in third place, while No. 6-ranked USC (+3) rounds out the teams ahead of Utah in fourth place.
"I thought for 27 holes the only guys playing well were Tristan and Kyler," explained head coach
Garrett Clegg. "Then, our final nine holes we played in 10-under par and it was awesome by all the boys. They played great! It was really fun to watch the shot quality by our guys."
Clegg continued, "Typically tomorrow would be our final round, but we still have 36 more holes to play. So, we need to be ready to attack tomorrow. It was a solid start and I'm looking forward to seeing how we respond tomorrow."
Utah's lone senior on the roster shot the best round of any golfer on the opening day of the tournament and is tied for the lead at the Pac-12 Championship. Dunkle went 4-under on the front nine to begin his second round and carried the momentum into the back nine, shooting 3-under to finish at 7-under (64) in the second round.
Dunkle also shot 1-under par (70) in the first round and has a 36-hole score of 8-under par (134), which is tied with USC's Justin Suh for the lead.
Also having a strong second round for the Utes, sophomore
Tristan Mandur shot 2-under par (69) in a consistent round that included shooting par on 14 of the 18 holes. Mandur recorded a first-round 2-over par (73) to have a combined score of even par (142), which puts him in a tie for 12
th overall.
In his first conference tournament, freshman
Axel Einarsson also had his best round of the day come in the second round after he shot 1-over par (72). Einarsson has a combined score of 4-over par (146) following his first-round 3-over par (74) and is tied for 35
th place. Sophomore
Blake Tomlinson is tied for 41
st place heading into Tuesday with a combined score of 5-over par (147). Tomlinson fired rounds of 3-over par (74) and 2-over par (73) for the Utes.
Rounding out the Utes, juniors
Mitchell Schow and
Jordan Costello are in 55
th and 61
st places, respectively. Schow carded rounds of 5-over par (76) and 2-over par (73), while Costello registered rounds of 3-over par (74) and 6-over par (77).
Tuesday's third round of the Pac-12 Championship will begin at 10 a.m. PT for Utah with Costello teeing off the No. 1 hole first for the Utes. Utah will be paired with Oregon and USC student-athletes during the third round of play. Live scoring is available via
Golfstat.com.