DUBLIN, Ohio – Cal (281-280 – 561, -7)
continued its dominating play of late over the
first 36 holes of the Jack
Nicklaus Invitational on Sunday at the par-71,
7,455-yard Scarlet Course at the Ohio State
University Golf Club. Cal,
who won by 30 strokes in its previous event at
the Saint Mary’s Invitational last week, leads its
closest competitor by
12 strokes. The Golden Bears have three players
in the top four after two rounds, including
second-round leader
Brandon Hagy (71-67 – 138, -4).
Pace Johnson (71-68 – 139, -3) and Shotaro
Ban (68-72 – 140, -2) are tied for second and
fourth place, respectively.
Michael Weaver (71-73 – 144, +2) and Michael
Kim (72-76 – 148, +6) are tied for 12th and
22nd.
“This was a really good day against a good
field,” head coach Steve Desimone said.
“They’re still sorting out the
rankings early in the season but I can tell that
teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kent
State are good teams,
probably the best teams we’ve seen so
far.”
“This is a tremendously difficult golf course,”
Desimone added. “All you have to do is look and
see that we’re the only
team under par. That tells you that this is a real
challenge. You really have to play well, and
that’s what we did after
a bit of a slow start on the first nine holes. We
really picked it up on the last 27.”
Oklahoma (291-282 – 573, +5) is in second
place after two rounds, followed by Oklahoma
State (292-285 – 577, +9),
first-round co-leader Purdue (281-305 – 586,
+18) and Kent State (293-298 – 591, +23).
Hagy’s second-round 67 tied for the lowest
score of the day to lead Cal to the best team
round of the day over the
final 18 holes. Hagy started on the 10th hole
and had five birdies during the round to just
one bogey. He birdied the
par-five 12th and par-three 13th in back-to-
back fashion before his lone bogey on the par-
four 14th. Hagy added
birdies on the par-four 16th and third, and par-
five sixth. In his opening round he carded a
three-under 33 on his back
nine with birdies on the par-four first and
second, as well as the sixth. His bogeys came
on the 12th, par-three 17th
and par-four 18th.
Hagy has been in the running for individual
medalist honors in each of his previous two
events in 2013-14 with a
second-place showing at the Gopher Invitational
and a third-place finish at the Saint Mary’s
Invitational.
“I played very solid today by hitting a lot of
good drives and making some good putts to
keep the rounds going,” Hagy
said. “I was over par early but fought back to be
the leader going into tomorrow. Every time you
are in contention you
gain experience and that’s what I will use
tomorrow.”
Johnson had a team-high 10 birdies over two
rounds with a team-high five in the first and
five more in his second to
match the five recorded by Hagy. Johnson, who
started on the 13th hole, had second-round
birdies on the 18th, first,
par-five fourth, sixth and 12th. Johnson also
had two bogeys on 15 and seven. Johnson
rallied from a difficult first-
round start that had him three-over after three
holes following a double bogey on the 14th and
a bogey on the par-
four 15th. He got into the red by playing the
next four holes in seven-under with birdies on
the 16th, 18th, third and
fourth. Johnson would bogey the par-three
eighth and par-four 10th but rebounded with a
birdie on 12 to finish his
opening round at even par.
“Despite my pretty poor start I was able to
gather myself and play some great golf after
that,” Johnson said. “I felt
very confident today with my ball striking and
was able to make a lot of really good putts. The
key for me was making
good decisions if I was not in good position on a
hole, and I definitely did that.”
Ban reached five-under for the tournament after
being two-under through the first 13 holes of
his second round before
playing the final five holes in three-over par
with bogeys on the par-four seventh, ninth and
11th. He birdied a pair of
par-threes (13, 17) and the par-five sixth along
with making a bogey on 16 before his struggles
down the stretch. Ban
had an incredible run of five straight birdies
during his opening round that started on the
fourth hole and ended on the
eighth with a pair of the birdies on par-three
holes (5, 8), one on a par-four (7) and two on
par-fives (4, 6). He also
had a birdie on 18 to give him six birdies during
his opening round, the most by any Cal player
on the day. He gave
three of the strokes back with a bogey on his
second hole of the day on the 13th and a double
bogey on his final hole
of the first round on the par-four 11th.
“Both myself and the team played well today,”
Ban said. “I finished both rounds poorly but
hung in there.”
Weaver was up-and-down during a day that
included eight birdies, six bogeys and two
double bogeys.
Kim totaled seven birdies, one double bogey
and 11 bogeys.
Cal will wrap up the Jack Nicklaus Invitational
on Monday with Kim the first of five Cal players
to tee off at 9:05 a.m.
ET/6:05 p.m. PT. All Cal players will start on the
first hole and tee off in 10-minute increments
following Kim. Cal will
play with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
“We have more work to do here,” Desimone
said.