After shooting a pedestrian 290 in the morning, the No. 1 ranked Cal State Bakersfield golf team stormed back to record a near-record 279 in the afternoon and take a five-stroke lead at the Family Motors Invitational Monday afternoon at Seven Oaks Country Club in Bakersfield.
The 279 CSUB shot in the afternoon is second only to the 274 the Roadrunners shot in the second round of the 2000 Family Motors tournament.
However, it wasn’t the only record-setting event of the day. Loyola Marymount’s Mike Farrell recorded the first hole-in-one in the five-year history of the Family Motors Invitational, acing the 175-yard fourth hole in the morning round.
As fate would have it, the second hole-in-one came hours later during the afternoon round. This time, the honors went to Ryan Roe of Simon Fraser University, who singled the 219-yard eighth hole.
Those heroics aside, the real individual fireworks figure to take place Tuesday, with 12 players battling for the individual championship. CSUB senior All-American Mike Plate leads a dozen players at or below par at five-under 139. Plate shot an even par 72 in the morning round before storming back to shoot 67 in the afternoon. That round was one off the tournament record of 66 set by James Donahoe of UC San Diego in 2000.
Hot on Plate’s trail was Chico State’s J.J. Jakovac, who equalled Plate’s 67 in the morning round before shooting one-over 73 in the afternoon.
CSUB’s Ron Killmer, playing in his first collegiate tournament, is two strokes off the pace at three-under.
Runner@csubak.edu