CU Men Take Third at K-State Bighorn Invitational

O’Loughlin, Paul and Painton lead Buffs to strong finish in Palm Desert

By Drew Kort

With a final score of 21 strokes better than par, the No. 48 CU men’s golf team placed in solo third at the K-State Bighorn Invitational.

The unit’s success was in large part due to the exceptional play of sophomore Daniel O’Loughlin (Nottingham, England) and seniors Yannik Paul (Viernheim, Germany) and Spencer Painton (Aurora). The trio took full advantage of the par-72, 7,000-yard Canyons course at Bighorn Golf Club. Between them, they logged an impressive aggregate tournament score of 22-under-par.

O’Loughlin posted the best finish of his collegiate career tying for second with three other players at 8 under par after rounds of 72-67-69. The Englishman came up only three shots shy of the individual champion Bryan Baumgarten of Illinois. O’Loughlin made the second-most birdies of any player in the field with 17. That number was only eclipsed by teammate Yannik Paul who made 19 to lead all competitors.

Paul’s field-leading 19 birdies helped him to a T6 finish and his third top-10 finish of the season. He carded rounds of 65-73-71.

Painton was among one of the players to tie Paul in sixth position with rounds of 72-69-68. The senior bested the field in par-4 scoring average-he played those holes in 5 under par for the week. This was his second top-10 finish this season. Both players posted tournament totals of 7 under par.

“Those three guys had a really good week,” Head Coach Roy Edwards said after the event. “I think Spencer and Yannik really hit the ball well, if either had had their putter going, either could have won the tournament.”

The tournament marked the third time in program history that three Buffs placed in the top 6 on the individual leaderboard.

Senior John Souza (Phoenix, Arizona) finished at 4 over par, and that was good enough for a T39 result. Sophomore Victor Bjorlow (Sotogrande, Spain) played his three rounds in 18 over par, and he ended in 65th.

As a unit, the Buffs came up 19 strokes shy of victor No. 15 Illinois. The Fighting Illini fired a 40 under par for three rounds.

The Buffaloes will be back on the course quickly. They will play in The Goodwin hosted by Stanford on March 29-31 in Stanford, California.

Click here for tournament stats and scores.