BREMERTON, Wash. – The Baylor men's golf team finished in sixth place at the NCAA Bremerton Regional after shooting 1-over-par 289 in Saturday's final round. The sixth-place finish was one spot shy of the cut to make the NCAA Championships, ending the Bears season.
BU finished the 54-hole tournament at 2-under-par 862, eight strokes back of TCU and Washington in a tie for fourth place. UAB (-21) won the regional, while South Carolina (-19) took second and Southern California (-17) finished in third. The Bears entered the final round in fifth place, but tournament-host Washington shot 11-under on Saturday to climb three spots in the standings from seventh to fourth.
Senior Kyle Jones finished tied for 10th place individually at 4-under 212 after shooting 1-over 73 in the final round. He broke the Baylor single-season record with a 70.47 stroke average, topping the previous record of 70.59 set by Ryan Baca in 2005-06. Jones wrapped up an illustrious four-year career with a 71.93 stroke average over 149 rounds, good for third-best career scoring average in program history. He also ranked third in program history with 21 top-10 finishes, third with 13 top-five finishes and tied for second with 149 career rounds played.
Junior Andreas Gjesteby shot 2-over 74 on Saturday to finish tied for 15th place at 3-under 213 for the tournament. Fellow junior Frederik Andersen tied for 24th place after firing a final round of 2-under 70 to finish at even-par 216. Senior Filippo Zucchetti shot even-par in the final round and finished tied for 52nd place at 7-over, while senior Mikkel Bjerch-Andresen tied for 58th at 8-over after a final-round of 2-over 74.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Baylor finished second in par-5 scoring average at 18-under 4.70. The Bears were seventh in par-4 scoring (4.09) and ninth in par-3 scoring (3.20).
- Baylor's 61 birdies were second-most in the field – only regional champion UAB (63) had more.
- Jones finished tied for second in par-4 scoring average at 5-under 3.83.
- Bjerch-Andresen tied for third in par-3 scoring average at 2-under 2.83.
- Gjesteby tied for the tournament lead with a 7-under 4.42 par-5 scoring average and finished tied for 10th in par-4 scoring at 3-under 3.90.
- Andersen tied for eighth in par-5 scoring average at 5-under 4.58.
- Gjesteby's 17 birdies tied for second-most in the 75-player field, while Jones tied for 10th with 13 birdies.
- Jones finished among the top 15 individuals in all 12 tournaments during his senior season.
STAT OF THE DAY
70.47 – Kyle Jones broke Baylor's single-season record with a 70.47 stroke average. The previous record of 70.59 was set by Ryan Baca in 2005-06.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor loses four seniors from its 2014-15 squad, as Jones, Bjerch-Andresen, Niclas Mansson and Zucchetti have all exhausted eligibility. Those four players accounted for 62 percent (114 of 183) of rounds played as part of the Baylor lineup this season. Baylor will be led by rising seniors Andreas Gjesteby and Frederik Andersen in 2015-16, and the Bears also return sophomore letterwinner Nick Thornton. Three-time national champion head coach Mike McGraw will return for his second season leading the Bears.
