Kuest in first, Cougars in second after day one of PING Cougar Classic

PROVO, Utah — Peter Kuest finished the first day of the PING Cougar Classic in first place to put BYU men’s golf in second after two rounds on Friday at Riverside Country Club.

“It is absolutely amazing what Peter continues to do for our team,” BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. “We need some other guys to step up tomorrow if we are going to win this tournament.”

BYU shot rounds of 281 and 279 in the first two rounds as a team, good for second place and  a combined 16 strokes under par. Denver is in first, two shots ahead of the Cougars with a 275 and 283 in the first 36 holes. 

Kuest hit a 64 (-8) in the first round and a 66 (-6) in the second to put himself at 14-under-par on the day, four strokes ahead of Blake Hathcoat of Saint Mary’s. Carson Lundell was next for the Cougars with a 71 (-1) and 70 (-2)  to tie for 13th after the first day. Chad Hardy rounded out BYU’s top finishers in 20th place with a 71 (-1) and an even 72 in the second round.

Rhett Rasmussen shot a 77 (+5) and 71 (-1) to place 53rd and Kelton Hirsch shot 75 (+3) and 76 (+4) for a 67th-place tie.

Brock Stanger competed individually and shot a 64 (-8) in the first round and a 79 (+7) in the second to tie with Hardy for 20th. Austin Banz also competed as an individual, shooting a pair of 73s to tie for 39th. 

In-state school Utah Valley is in ninth place overall at 10-over for the tournament while Utah State and Southern Utah are tied for 14th at 19-over. West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary's is in seventh at six-under. 

The tournament concludes tomorrow with a final 18 holes starting at 7:50 a.m. MDT. Live stats and the leaderboard can be found on Golfstat.