Back-to-back tournament first-place finishes for the BYU men's golf team were on the horizon through two rounds until it slipped away at the Leadership & Golf Collegiate at the Bayonet Golf Club in Monterey, California on Oct. 21-23.
Being fresh off of conquering the Big 12 Match Play two weeks ago, the Cougars did not let their foot off the gas pedal in this one. They led after 36 holes being seven-under par and in the lead by four strokes to second place Santa Clara at the time.
Leading up to this tournament, BYU never had a player in their lineup leading all players after a single round. However, it featured junior Simon Kwon sitting at the top of the leaderboard at the conclusion of the second round.
"Hit the driver great and played to my strengths," Kwon said. "Never got too frustrated and stayed in the present. Pumped for tomorrow!"
Proud uncle of Kwon, and director of BYU golf Todd Miller, could not help but express his excitement for the team going into the final round.
"I thought the team did a great job of picking the right moments to be aggressive," said Miller. "If we can stay in the present and keep it on the fat side of the green we will have a great chance to win tomorrow."
What came next for Kwon and the Cougars was a disappointing collapse. After shooting six-over par in the final round, his accumulated score of seven-under par dropped to just one-under par which pushed him outside the top-10 with a No. 12 finish overall. A scorecard read of 67-70-78-215 is still a very respectable score and kept him in the upper echelon of the 84 competing golfers.
Of course, the drop to second place should not be solely Kwon’s fault as every golf tournament is a team effort after all. First-place Pacific shooting a remarkable 13-under par in the final round and jumping three spots is another factor to the drop. His strong start to the tournament was a huge contribution to BYU’s dominant start and still great final placement. His teammates picked up the slack in order to at the very least stay in the top two of the 14- team pool.
One of the Cougars that continues to impress and picked up that slack is sophomore Peter Kim. He finished with the best score out of all his teammates for the second time in three stroke play tournaments this season. At this point, a consistently high score is expected for his performance as he placed no lower than No. 12 in any stroke play tournament this fall. A 69-72-71-212 scorecard resulting in four-under par can be thanks to his white-hot finish to the final round.
“My mindset was to try and go low and catch the leaders today,” Kim said. “I didn’t play how I wanted to through 12 holes but I hung in there and finished 5-under on my last six holes which helped me before the wind started to pick up.”
Kim was staring at a four-over par as he approached hole 13. That five-under finish had the following sequence of birdie, par, birdie, birdie, par, and eagle on the final six holes. This shot him up three spots on the leaderboard which made him one of five Cougars to improve their ranking from the second round to the finish. That is a flash of greatness from him as truly excellent golfers get better as the rounds go on no matter the kind of holes they face.
Senior Cole Ponich was not far behind Kim. Ponich tied for fifth with a 71-72-70-213 score giving him three-under par. This was his second finish inside the top-10 in stroke play tournaments and the first one within the top five. He jumped five spots in the leaderboard after his final round.
The rest of lineup consisted of junior Tyson Shelley (74-74-72-220), sophomore Angus Klintworth (75-78-78-231), and individual competitors senior Zac Jones (75-73-70-218) and freshman Kevin Wu (79-75-70-224) who represented themselves in the tournament even though they are affiliated with BYU. Jones’ and Wu’s scores did not count towards the overall team scores. Jones finished tied for No. 19 overall followed by Shelley’s tie for No. 24, Wu’s tie No. 45, and Klintworth’s tie for No. 69.
The No. 35 nationally ranked Cougars can go into the offseason with their heads held high and prepare for the spring season next year.
They will tee off that season Feb. 3-4 at the Arizona Intercollegiate in Tucson, Arizona at Omni Tucson National Resort.