The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Conference USA Tournament
UAB Settles Into Sixth At C-USA Championships
4/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
April 25, 2006
WESPORT, Miss. -- Garrett Osborn and Josh Thompson matched each other stroke-for-stroke Tuesday at the 2006 Conference USA Men's Golf Championships. The duo shot even-par 72s in the second round of the league championships and remain tied for fifth on the individual leaderboard on the par-72, 7,200-yard Old Waverly Golf Course. UAB's team score of 291 dropped the Blazers to sixth place out of 12 teams with 18 holes to play.
"We're one man playing well away from making a run," UAB head coach Alan Kaufman said. "Even though our team score went up today, everyone else's did for the most part as well. We're just 12 strokes off the lead which is miniscule from a team standpoint. All we need is for all five guys to be clicking on all cylinders Wednesday and we can win this."
UAB is five shots behind fifth-place Tulsa and just 12 from co-leaders Houston and Memphis. The Cougars went eight-under par as a team with a red-hot 280 Tuesday to pull even at 565 with the first-round leading Tigers. SMU, UCF and Tulsa stand third through fifth, respectively, with scores of 569, 571 and 572.
UCF's Sonny Nimkhum fired a six-under 66 to tie SMU's Will Dodson at six-under 138 for 36-holes and the individual lead. Zack Mowbray of Houston and Brad Benjamin of Memphis are tied for third at four-under 140. Osborn and Thompson's two-round total of 141 is tied with Pablo Acuna of Houston, Colt Knost of SMU and Kyle Kelley of Rice for top-five honors. The top five finishers comprise the 2006 all-tournament team.
Blazer freshman Zack Sucher went one-under Tuesday to pull into a tie for 14th overall at 143. Kaylor Timmons matched his first-round 76 and is tied for 46th at eight-over 152. Clark Brown also equaled his first-round total of 78 and is tied for 53rd at 12-over par.
"We have to come out and perform better from top to bottom tomorrow," Kaufman said. "The last day of the tournament is when everyone is playing their best. We've felt all along we had the talent and the ability to win the conference title. All that is left now is to go out, play well and see where the chips fall."
Round three tees off early Wednesday at Old Waverly. The 2006 all-conference teams and individual award winners for the year are announced Wednesday as well. The team winner receives the league's automatic bid to NCAA Regional play early next month.
