Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
NCAA Championship Day 2
Jones Leads Rams on Day Two of NCAA Championships
5/27/2023 8:52:00 PM | Men's Golf
No teams finish below par after the first round of the NCAA Championship
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Through two rounds of the NCAA Championship Connor Jones has not backed down from the challenge that is Grayhawk Golf Club. The senior fired a 2-over, 72 on Saturday to move to 3-over for the tournament and is tied for 36th.
Consistent play has been key for Jones this weekend as he had 12 pars on Saturday and has 23 for the championship. Pars are a great score on a course that's average score is 6 over for the tournament. He had an up-and-down front nine opening with a bogey but then recorded two birdies over the next three holes. Through five holes played he had just one par, but sat at even, making the turn at 1-over after a bogey on the 468-yard par 4 ninth. The pars rolled in on the back nine with eight overall and his lone blemish was a bogey on 14.
Jones had the best score of the day for the Rams by three strokes as both Davis Bryant and Jay Pabin turned in 5-over, 75s on Saturday.
Colorado State sits in 28th place with a team total of 35-over, 595 entering Sunday's key third round. At the conclusion of play on Sunday, the field will be cut in half from 30 to 15 teams and the top nine individuals not on an advancing team will continue to Monday's final round of stroke play to decide the NCAA individual national champion.
CSU has some work to do to make that final 15 entering Sunday 19 strokes outside the cut line. Jones has himself within striking distance of the individual cut line if it came down to it depending on what teams advance.
Of note, one of the teams right on the cut line is BYU, which is unable to compete on Sundays due to religious observance. The Cougars played a tournament countable round on Thursday in substitute of it shooting 23-over.
The Rams tee off the third round starting at 2:10 pm MT with East Tennessee State and Baylor. Live results can be found on GolfStat.
