Spieth leaps into third-place tie at Big 12 Men's Golf Championship
April 27, 2012
TRINITY, Texas -- Texas freshman Jordan Spieth closed his second round in the Big 12 Championship with four birdies over his final five holes to catapult into a tie for third place through 36 holes at Whispering Pines Golf Club on Friday. As a team, the top-seeded Longhorns (594, +18) recorded rounds of 14-over 302 and 4-over 292 to finish the first day of the 72-hole conference championship in fourth place. Beginning his second round on the 10th hole, Spieth (74-69=143, -1) found an instantaneous birdie and dropped to 2-under with another on 14. Bogeys on 15 and 17 cost him both strokes, and he climbed to 1-over with a third and final bogey on the second hole – his 11th of the round. The No. 1 collegiate individual entering this weekend’s championship, Spieth charged down the stretch with birdies on five, six, eight and nine to result in his 3-under round. His 10 combined birdies in both rounds were the most by any player in the field. In the first round, senior Dylan Frittelli paced the Longhorns with a 3-under 69 for Texas’ only subpar score. His scorecard included three pairs of back-to-back birdies on the second and third, 11th and 12th and 17th and 18th holes to subset three bogeys on seven, nine and 13. Despite a 4-over 76 in the afternoon, Frittelli’s morning round shaved nearly as many strokes and he enters Saturday’s third round at 1-over 145 and tied for sixth place. Junior Julio Vegas improved seven strokes between his morning and afternoon rounds with a second-round 1-under 71. After a first-round 78 that included four bogeys, one double and one birdie, Vegas carded three birdies and two bogeys to aid Texas’ climb up the leaderboard. Vegas is tied for 14th place at 5-over 149.
Senior Alex Moon and sophomore Toni Hakula are tied for 36th place at 13-over 157 with identical first and second-round scores of 81 and 76. Texas A&M leads the field at 6-over 582 (296-286). Oklahoma (292-292=584) sits two strokes back in second, while Texas Tech (290-298=588) finished day one in third and six strokes off the lead. Oklahoma’s Abraham Ancer (72-69) is on top of the individual leaderboard after finishing with a 3-under 141. The Sooner recorded eight birdies through the two rounds. Texas A&M’s Johannes Veerma (72-70=142, -2) sits in second. The Longhorns’ third round is set to begin at 8:18 a.m. Central Saturday morning on the first tee. Texas is paired with Texas Tech and the twosomes are separated by nine-minute increments. POST-ROUND COMMENTS On Whispering Pines Golf Club: Whispering Pines is a wonderful golf course. Because they’ve had 23 inches of rain here, the native grass is extremely difficult and the rough is tougher than it has been in the past. We saw every part of it today, and hopefully we see a lot more short grass tomorrow. TEAM STANDINGS (THROUGH TWO ROUNDS) TOP-11 INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS (THROUGH TWO ROUNDS) TEXAS PLAYERS |
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