Team jumps to ninth, Blair tied for 16th

PULLMAN, Wash. – Justin Keiley shot a second round one-under 71 to help BYU to a ninth-place standing through 36 holes at the NCAA Golf Championships Pullman Regional Friday.

Coming off an opening round 282 (-6), the Cougars shot a second round 291 (+3) team score. At three-under-par through two rounds, the team currently stands in ninth place, one stroke ahead of tenth place Baylor (-2) and 10 strokes behind the fifth place spot needed to advance to the finals.

“Our guys didn’t play bad, but we definitely didn’t shoot the score we needed to,” BYU associate head golf coach Todd Miller said. “We needed to shoot five to 10 under today to put ourselves in a really good position for tomorrow and we kind of stayed right where we were. Zac played pretty solid again today and Keiley played pretty solid.”

No. 1 California retained the top spot after shooting a second round 276 (-12). At 35-under-par on the tournament California leads No. 13 Southern California (-24) by 11 strokes and No. 24 Saint Mary’s (-19) by 16 strokes.

Rounding out the top-five, No. 11 TCU (-15) stands in fourth place and San Diego State (-13) and Pacific (-13) stand tied for fifth. The teams with the five lowest scores from each of the six NCAA regional tournaments will qualify for the finals in Atlanta, Ga.

Keiley recorded the best round of the day for the Cougars, making four birdies to card a 71 (-1). At even par, Keiley stands tied for 41st place.

Zac Blair had another consistent round for BYU, finishing with two pars, two bogeys and 14 pars to shoot even-par. Blair’s second round 72 included a span of eight straight pars on his final eight holes. The senior stands tied for 16th place at four-under par through two rounds.

Sophomore Devon Purser shot a second round 73 (+1) and stands at one-over-par through 36 holes. Purser made three straight birdies and 11 pars during round two and sits tied for 43rd place.

Jordan Hammer and Joe Parkinson shot rounds of 75 (+3) and 79 (+7) respectively. Hammer made two birdies and 12 pars, while Parkinson added two birdies and 10 pars during round two.

“We need to be really aggressive on the greens compared to where we have been,” Miller said. “We’ve been a little tentative, but we still need to play really smart golf.”

The Cougars return to action during tomorrow’s third and final round with tee times set to start at 7:30 a.m. PDT. Follow live action of the NCAA regional on golfstat.com.

Individual Scores

Team Scores