Cougars finish fourth at Husky Invitational

Bremerton, WA -- BYU's No. 17-ranked men's golf team finished among the top five teams for the second consecutive tournament this fall as the Cougars tied for fourth at the Husky Invitational on Tuesday.

The Cougars, who led after the first round slipped to a tie for fourth with Washington State on the final day. The Washington Huskies defended their home turf with a 21-stroke victory while San Diego State finished second. No. 3-ranked UCLA was third finishing six shots better than BYU and Washington State. California, ranked fourth in the latest Golfweek standings, was sixth. The tournament featured six-man teams with the top five scores counting toward the team total.

"I would have liked to have finished a little better today, but we still had a lot of bright spots in this tournament for our team," BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "We left a lot of shots out there and we need to minimize those if we want to beat the top teams."

Junior Todd Miller earned his first top-10 finish since returning from an LDS mission. His fourth place finish ties his career best finish as he went 73-72-72--217.

"He's still trying to find his game since coming home from a mission, but I think he's doing a tremendous job," Brockbank said. "It's never easy coming back after a two-year break and he's been our top performer in both tournaments this fall.

Oscar Alvarez and Greg Machtaler both finished tied for 23rd at eight-over-par. In his first collegiate tournament, true freshman Clay Ogden finished 27th after going 74-77-74--225. Another freshman, Jake Ellison also played well for the Cougars finishing 75-78-75--228 and in 38th place.

Next up for the Cougars is the Fresno Lexus Classic on Oct. 10-11.

TEAM STANDINGS
 1   Washington               365  366  356   1087    +7
 2   San Diego State          372  373  363   1108   +28
 3   UCLA                     371  376  364   1111   +31
 4   Brigham Young            364  380  373   1117   +37
     Washington State         376  374  367   1117   +37
 6   California               367  380  372   1119   +39
 7   Oregon State             373  367  380   1120   +40
 8   Fresno State             383  375  366   1124   +44
 9   Oregon                   382  371  376   1129   +49
10   Tohoku Fukushi           381  377  374   1132   +52
BYU INDIVIDUAL SCORES
 4    Todd Miller              73   72   72    217
23    Greg Machtaler           73   75   76    224
23    Oscar Alvarez            69   78   77    224
27    Clay Ogden               74   77   74    225
38    Jake Ellison             75   78   75    228
43    Ron Harvey, Jr.          76   78   76    230