Feb. 23, 2004
Puerto Rico Classic Results (Day Two)
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SAN JUAN, P.R. -- Like it did two weeks ago at the Mercedes-Benz Championships, Northwestern shaved a considerable number of strokes off its day-one team score to climb the standings at the Puerto Rico Classic, which is being held at the Rio Mar Country Club. Today's field played Rio Mar's Ocean Course.
Northwestern, ranked 25th in this week's Golfweek/Sagarin index, climbed only spot (16th to 15th) in the team standings, but it distanced itself from fellow Big Ten school Illinois, which now trails NU by 21 strokes. The two schools were tied for 16th place after the first round. The Wildcats are now tied with Purdue, the host school, but more importantly, are only eight strokes back of 10th-place teams Kent State and No. 9 Oklahoma State.
"I hope we continue that trend from two weeks ago and finish strong tomorrow," said head coach Pat Goss. "It would be nice to place ahead of some of these teams in front of us, especially the schools from our region."
Senior Tom Johnson (Sacramento, Calif./Del Campo) continued his strong spring play, shooting one of the day's best rounds -- a 3-under 69. He is now in ninth place overall at 3-under (72-69=141).
"Tom is playing some consistent golf right now," said Goss.
Junior Dillon Dougherty (Woodland, Calif./Woodland) fired an even-par 72 to climb to 42nd place. He is 4-over for the tournament (76-72=148).
Senior Casey Strunk (Phoenix, Ariz./Thunderbird) closed the second round at 2-over (77-74=151) and is 57th overall. Both freshman Chris Wilson (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman) and sophomore Bryson Young (Reno, Nev./Galena) fired 77's on Monday and are 80th (81-77=158) and 83rd (83-77=160), respectively.
Oklahoma fired an 8-under 280 to move into first place (13-under 563) while Florida had the day's best round (11-under 277) to climb into second place, three strokes back of the Sooners. Clemson's Matt Hendrix fired a 5-under 67 to take the lead in the individual race. Johnson is four strokes behind Hendrix.
For a complete recap of the tournament, visit Golfweek's web site at Puerto Rico Classic.