Kuest and the Cougars maintain lead at St. Mary's

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Peter Kuest and the BYU men's golf team maintained the lead after the second day of competition at the Saint Mary’s Invitational Tuesday.

"The guys played really great golf," BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "We need to eliminate our poor misses and continue to make putts and we will have another great score tomorrow."

Kuest held on to his seven-stroke lead over second place, shooting a 69 (-2) in the second of three rounds. Austin Banz also shot a 69, giving him sole possession of third place going into the third round.

Rhett Rasmussen shot an even 71 to remain just outside the top 10 in 11th place. Chad Hardy and Carson Lundell both fired one-under par on the day, putting Hardy in an 11th-place tie with Rasmussen and Lundell in 42nd. Kelton Hirsch came in 51st with a 74 (+2) in the round.

The Cougars sit 14 strokes ahead of second place and WCC foe Pepperdine. Saint Mary’s, San Francisco and Santa Clara round out the conference opponents in eighth, 10th and 14th place. Utah is currently tied for 11th.

The final round will be played tomorrow, with live stats and the leaderboard found at Golfstat.

Day One Recap