April 7, 2009

Scottsdale, Arizona - Digging the hole is easy; finding your way out is a little tougher. And so it went for the Pacific golf team in their final tournament before the Big West Conference Championship. After spotting the 20-team field 19 shots during the first round at Talking Stick Golf Club the Tigers stormed back yesterday to shot the lowest team score in the programs' history. Tuesday was somewhere in-between for the Goethals' team as a final-round 289 gave the Tigers an eighth place finish in the Cowboy Classic.

As he'd done for most of his sophomore season it was once again TJ Bordeaux leading the charge as he played to a 73-68-73 for the tournament. Senior Charlie Van Sicklen, playing his last regular-season tournament went out on a high note, getting himself in the record books with a second round 66 and tying Bordeaux for 27th place individually.

Patrick Kucich played steady golf, shooting one-over, two-over and three-over at the par 70 course. Arizona natives Alex Johnson and Robert Perrott struggled mightily over the two-day tournament, with Johnson turning in a better second round score of 68 but Perrott finishing in 104th place.

"Of course I'm pleased to see us bounce back yesterday afternoon... but that's how you're supposed to play golf out here," said head coach Brandon Goethals. "We dug ourselves such a huge hole that it was hard to climb out and make any noise on the leaderboard. If we keep it together and shoot 10 over we're right in the game; but 19-over... that's hard to do."

Extremely warm temperatures and high winds made the going difficult for the field that had swollen to more than 23-teams. Players, normally accustomed to 4 ½ or 5 hour rounds didn't finish the final round until Tuesday afternoon at 3:00, well over a six hour round.

Big West rival UC Davis closed out the tournament with a final round 267, besting the next best team by 16 strokes. The Tigers must upset the Aggies next week in the Big West Championship to move on to Regionals at the end of the month.

8Pacific, U. of the 299 274 289 862 T 27 T.J. Bordeaux 73 68 73 214 T 27 Charlie Van Sicken 77 66 71 214 T 39 Patrick Kucich 71 72 73 216 T 54 Alex Johnson 78 68 72 218 104 Robert Perrott III 78 73 80 231

Fin. School Scores 1UC Davis 287 271 267 825 -15 2Oregon State U. 286 274 281 841 +1 3Texas El Paso, U. of 283 281 278 842 +2 4San Diego, U. of 284 281 278 843 +3 5Fresno State 284 281 280 845 +5 6Northwestern 287 273 289 849 +9 7Idaho, Univ. of 285 289 287 861 +21 8Pacific, U. of the 299 274 289 862 +22 9Southern Utah Univ. 294 279 291 864 +24 10Western Carolina U. 298 283 285 866 +26 11UC Santa Barbara 295 288 285 868 +28 Boise State Univ. 297 288 283 868 +28 13Gonzaga University 298 291 282 871 +31 14San Jose State 301 285 289 875 +35 15Old Dominion Univ. 300 286 290 876 +36 16Wyoming, U. of 300 285 294 879 +39 17Utah, Univ. of 306 284 290 880 +40 18Grand Canyon Univ. 303 285 294 882 +42 19Weber State Univ. 302 289 294 885 +45 20UC Riverside 310 288 291 889 +49