Cougars In Contention in South Bend

SOUTH BEND -- With two rounds down and one to go at the Fighting Irish Gridiron Classic, the BYU men’s golf team is currently in ninth place with a two-round score of 596, 36-over-par.

Playing the furthest away from home they will play all season, the Cougars carded a round-one total of 299 strokes before going two shots better over the second 18 holes at 297. Tournament-host Notre Dame leads the field at 18-over-par, but BYU is just six strokes back of second-place Iowa (30-over-par) heading into the final round of play.

Senior Brady Johnson paced the Cougars in both rounds to finish the day tied for 11th place at +6. His first-round 74 was clean overall with a birdie on the par-5 17th hole to go along with two bogeys and a rare triple bogey, which came on his third-to-last hole. In the second round, Johnson improved his stroke total to 72 while again birdying the 17th hole and adding birdies on the par-4 1st and 8th holes. Johnson’s two-round score of 146 is just four strokes out of second place.

Junior Esteban Castillo was the next Cougar golfer on the scoreboard at 9-over-par, which was tied for 28th place. Castillo went +5 in round one with birdies on the par-5 5th and 17th holes. After getting off to a rough start in round two with bogeys on two of his first three holes, Castillo finished strong with a birdie on the par-4 1st hole, allowing him to go one shot better in round two at +4.

Cougar freshman Zachary Blair and sophomore Jordan Rodgers were right behind Castillo at +10 and +11, respectively. Blair posted a round-one score at 6-over-par and went 4-over in round two with a total of three birdies on the day. Rodgers played a solid first round at +4 with three birdies but faltered over the next 18 holes, going +7 with one birdie. Senior Robbie Fillmore, the Mountain West Conference’s stroke leader, struggled through a tough day to finish 19-over-par.

BYU will conclude play with third-round action on Tuesday.