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In Day 2 of the Men's Golf Pac 12 Championships, the #12 Huskies struggled to string together the birdies they needed to close the gap on the rest of the field. They finished the day tied for fifth - the same position that they started in. They will go into the last day of the tournament 26 shots off lead.
Ahead of the Huskies, #3 Arizona State seems to be running away with the tournament with a 9-shot lead. They are followed by #13 Stanford, #16 Stanford and #8 Oregon.
Huskies Senior CT Pan has had his moments in the tournament, but hasn't been able to get any momentum established as he sits 10th on the overall leaderboard. The top performer for the Dawgs has been Corey Pereira who is 2-under for the tournament and sitting in 7th place overall.
The Championships will conclude Wednesday in Pullman.
Thanks to Ricky Brackett of the UW Athletic Department for the press release below.
Dawgs Still Fifth At Pac-12's
Release: 04/28/2015
Live Scoring | Pac-12 Championships Central
PULLMAN, Wash. – After a slow start, No. 12 Washington closed well and remains fifth after three rounds at the Pac-12 Championships from Palouse Ridge. The Dawgs finished Tuesday’s round at 7-over 357 and are now 23-over for the championship.
“We finished strong and I am proud of that, but having to count a high fifth score today really hurt us,” said head coach Matt Thurmond. “It’s a tough conference so if we don’t play well we know we won’t be in the hunt to win.”
The Huskies are 26 shots off the lead set by No. 3 Arizona State who is the lone team under par at 3-under. The Sun Devils had the best third round, shooting 8-under 342. They’ll take a nine-shot lead over No. 13 Stanford to the final round as the Cardinal are second at 6-over. First round leader, No. 16 USC is third at 10-over, followed by No. 8 Oregon at 16-over and then the Dawgs.
Individually, Maverick McNealy of Stanford leads at 9-under, shooting a 2-under 68 on Tuesday for his third-straight round in the 60’s. He has a four-shot margin on K.K. Limbhasut of California and Aaron Wise of Oregon who are each 5-under.
The Huskies were led by Corey Pereira who shot a round of 2-under 68 to get to 2-under for the championship. Pereira is currently seventh after making seven birdies for Tuesday’s round. The sophomore will look for his second-straight top-10 at the Pac-12 Championships after finishing eighth last year.
“Corey finally made some birdies today and had a nice round,” said Thurmond.
Senior Cheng-Tsung is also in the top-10 after playing the back nine at 3-under to get to even-par 70 for day. It was the third-straight round of even par for Pan who had four birdies and four bogeys on the day and is now tied for 10th.
The Dawgs also got solid efforts from Jonathan Sanders and Frank Garber. Sanders birdied 16 and 18 to get his round to 1-over 71. He is now at 7-over for the tournament and tied for 32nd. Garber also birdied the 18th, his only of the day, but avoided most mistakes to shoot 2-over 72. He is now 8-over and tied for 35th.
For the final score, the Dawgs had to keep a 6-over 76 as that was carded by both Jordan Lu and Chris Babcock. Lu made three birdies, but was did in by a quadruple bogey 8 on the third hole. He is now 13-over for the tournament and tied for 52nd. Babcock made just one birdie and is now tied for 47th at 12-over.
Wednesday will mark the final round of the Pac-12 Championships as the teams finish the remaining 18 holes. The Dawgs will look to get hot and make a charge up the leaderboard, playing with Oregon and Oregon State off the first tee, starting at 8 a.m.