Blair leads the way for the Cougars

Day 1 Recap

TEMPE, Ariz. – Junior Zac Blair finished fifth, leading the BYU men's golf team to a seventh-place finish at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational, which featured five of the countries top-20 teams on Saturday.

“Zac started it off well early, but had a bad break on the fifth hole,” BYU coach Bruce Brockbank. “He had his chances to win it all, but fell just short.”

Blair’s (5-under 208) finish marks the third consecutive tournament he has placed in the top five individually. He finished fourth and second in his two previous tournaments, both in Arizona.

Freshman Devon Purser and sophomore Cole Ogden tied for the lowest score in the final round for BYU as both shot 2-under 69. Purser eagled the par-5 No. 14, however, the Cougars were unable to make up ground on the leaders of the pack.

“Cole and Devon’s last rounds were big positives,” Brockbank said. “It’s nice to see the young guys step up and shoot some good rounds.”

No. 3 California won the tournament with a 17-under 835. Tied for second was No. 15 San Diego State and No. 20 New Mexico, eight shots off pace at 843. No. 5 UNLV and No. 7 Washington rounded out the top five. BYU finished the final round with a 2-over 286 and an 8-over 860 for the weekend.

“We’re making strides forward and just need to finish it out,” Brockbank said. “Our one and two guys need to shoot a couple shots better and our four and five guys need to shoot more rounds in the low 70s.”

BYU will travel to Hollister, California on April 16-18 to compete in the West Coast Conference Championship.