June 1, 2006
Sunriver, Ore. – Cameron Tringale and Kevin Larsen posted subpar rounds in deteriorating conditions Thursday, but Georgia Tech again suffered from several poor holes in a six-over-par 294 round and remains near the bottom of the standings in the NCAA Men’s Division I Golf Championship.
The fourth-ranked Yellow Jackets are in danger of missing Friday’s cut to the top 15 teams if they are unable to post a low score in round three. Tech has missed three cuts in 20 previous NCAA Championship appearances, most recently in 1999.
After 36 holes, Tech has a tournament total of 595, 19 shots over par on the 7,630-yard, par-72 Crosswater Golf Club, and is in 29th place out of 30 teams. Tech will be in the final groups to tee off Friday (4:35 p.m. Eastern time).
Washington (13-under-par 563) took the second-round lead Thursday with a six-under-par 282, and leads Arizona State (9-under 279 Thursday) and Wake Forest (1-over 289) by three shots. Florida is in fourth place, while Clemson and Kentucky are tied for fifth.
Click here for complete scores, standings and Friday tee times.
“You don’t know if it will stay nice, but we’d have to shoot 10 or nine under (Friday),” head coach Bruce Heppler said of his team’s chances of staying alive for Saturday’s final round. “We need to shoot one of those kinds of rounds. We’re behind the eight-ball, there’s no question. If you get back to 10 over tomorrow, then you might have chance, but it’s a pretty meager chance.”
Tringale, a freshman from Laguna Niguel, Calif., playing in his first NCAA Championship, posted the team’s low round for the second straight day, a two-under-par 70 that included four birdies and no bogeys over his last 13 holes. He has a 36-hole total of 143, one under par. Larsen, a junior from Santa Barbara, Calif., birdie three of his last four holes, and had six birdies in his round, to finish at one-under-par 71 and a 36-hole total of 147.
Mike Barbosa, a senior from St. Petersburg, Fla., posted a two-over 74 Thursday which was solid save for a triple-bogey at the 687-yard 12th hole, a par-5 that wraps around a lake to the left of the fairway and has out-of-bounds territory all along the right side. Freshman Taylor Hall (LaGrange, Ga.) posted a 79, including a triple-bogey on No. 12 and a double-bogey on No. 18, for Tech’s fourth counting score.
The 12th hole was a microcosm of Tech’s driving issues in this tournament. The Jackets’ five players played it in a collective 12-over-par Thursday, including seven shots lost to par there alone in its four counting scores.
“We had two good rounds today, but it’s still too many triples, too many doubles, too many big numbers,” Heppler said. “You just have to find it, and we’re not finding it. Between the fairways and the rough, it’s not that demanding unless you’re really wild with it.”
