Velasquez in First Going into Final Round

“Today was probably one of the better rounds of his life” - Oregon State men’s golf head coach Brian Watts

OSU Junior Diego Velasquez Courtesy: The Daily Barometer

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - Junior Diego Velasquez climbed all the way to first place Monday shooting a 4-under 66 during the second round of the 63rd Annual Western Intercollegiate in Santa Cruz, Calif.

“Today was probably one of the better rounds of his life,” Oregon State men’s golf head coach Brian Watts said. “He made a double bogie on a ridiculously hard par-3 straight into the wind; people were hitting drivers and weren’t getting there. He just kept his attitude right and toughed it out.”

Velasquez started the day in 31st place after a 4-over in the first round, but had five birdies in his last eight holes of the second round to catapult his way to the top of the leaderboard. He had the only sub-par round out of any golfer during the second round.

“He hit the ball so well yesterday and today,” Watts said. “He hit the flagstick; he almost made a couple hole-in-ones today. He just had a great day. He’s been playing well and it’s just been a matter of getting putts to fall. Today he hit them so close that he didn’t have to hit a lot of long putts.”

Oregon State fought through a tough course, which was made even tougher due to windy conditions, and posted the lowest team round of the day, a 12-over 292. Monday’s round two score was a 14 stroke improvement over round one.

“We’re pleased with how things went today,” Watts said. “We knew that if we stayed patient and made minimal mistakes that we were going to climb up the leaderboard because of how tough the conditions were today.”

Junior Paul Peterson improved his placing by 42 spots by shooting a 2-over 72 in the second round to finish tied for 27th. He had three birdies during the round.

“Paul had a good round going today,” Watts said. “He got off to a rough start, but then hit some birdies.”

Freshman Morten Madsen finished one stroke behind Peterson and is tied for 34th at 11-over.

Freshman Jonnie Motomochi and redshirt freshman Alex Moore finished tied for 66th and 89th respectively.

Fresno State leads all teams at 19-over with a two round score of 579.

The Beavers look to climb even further up the leaderboard as they head into the final round Tuesday. The third round will tee off again at 9 a.m. with a shotgun start.

“We decided that we were going to come out today and not put as much pressure on ourselves and to embrace the challenge,” Watts said. “We went out and played the way I know we can play. The guys kept it together and it was a really good team effort and we’re going to build off what we did today going into the final round.”

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