Motomochi Aces 12th Hole, Tied For Lead At Pacific Invitational

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(STOCKTON, Calif.) - Oregon State junior Jonnie Motomochi made a hole-in-one on the 135-yard, par-three 12th hole and fired a 6-under 65 to tie for the individual lead after the first round at the Pacific Invitational on Monday.

The Beavers are in second place overall at the 12-team tournament after shooting a 7-under 277 at the par-71, 6,757-yard Brookside Country Club, trailing only host Pacific University, which shot a 12-under 272. Marquette is in third with a 4-under 280 and Saint Mary’s College is in fourth with a 3-under 281.

Motomochi used a 9-iron on the 12th hole and added birdies on the 9th, 10th and 11th holes to shoot 5-under over those four holes. It’s his first ace in competition and said it’s his first since “I was about 11-years-old when I made a hole-in-one at a par-three course in Victoria (British Columbia).”

“I used a little 9-iron and hit it eight feet past the hole and it rolled back in,” Motomochi added. “I knew it was good right away, but it was complete luck that it went in. I put my hands on my head and couldn’t believe it happened. It was definitely very cool.”

Freshman David Fink shot a 1-under 70 and is tied for 11th, while sophomore Nick Sherwood and junior Alex Moore both shot an even-par 71.

“If you look at the scores, it looks like we played well, but we didn’t play nearly our best,” Oregon State head coach Jon Reehoorn said. “Jonnie played great and carried us, but everybody else just played okay. I want to hold the guys to a higher standard and get to a level that we expect to play and not worry about the results.”

The second round begins at 8 a.m. on Tuesday with tee times off the 1st and 10th holes. Oregon State golfers will begin off the 1st hole at 8:45 a.m. Live scoring throughout the tournament will be available at www.golfstatresults.com.

Team Scores: 1. Pacific 272; 2. Oregon State 277; 3. Marquette 280; 4. Saint Mary’s College 281; 5. Nevada 287; t6. Charlotte 288; t6. Santa Clara 288; t6. Fresno State 288; 9. UC Davis 293; 10. Kansas State 294; 11. BYU 295; 12. Denver 297.

Top Individual Scores: t1. Jonnie Motomochi, Oregon State 65; t1. Patrick Kucich, Pacific 65; 3. Rick Lamb, Santa Clara 66; t4. Bhavik Patel, Fresno State 68; t4. T.J. Bordeaux, Pacific 68; t6. Corey Konieczki, Marquette 69; t6. Scott Smith, Nevada 69; t6. Ben Geyer, Saint Mary’s College 69; t6. Alex Edfort, Pacific 69; t6. Richard Conlin, Saint Mary’s College 69; t11. David Fink, Oregon State 70; t11. Brian Knoll, Nevada 70; t11. Ben Sieg, Marquette 70; t11. Cameron Edens, BYU 70; t11. Kelly Kretz, Marquette 70; t11. Alex Johnson, Pacific 70; t11. Austin Graham, UC Davis 70; t11. Klinton Krieger, Denver 70.

Oregon State Scores: t1. Jonnie Motomochi 65; t11. David Fink 70; t19. Nick Sherwood 71; t19. Alex Moore 71; t48. Jeff Petroff 76.

Source: OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY