Franklin Shines On Day Two In Palm Desert
PALM DESERT, Calif. – Alex Franklin fired a 2-under 70 in tough weather conditions in the second round of the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate on Saturday to lead the Oregon State men’s golf team.
Franklin, a senior from San Rafael, Calif., was one of only 11 golfers in the 127-player field to shoot in red figures on Saturday, which vaulted him 21 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for fourth place with a 2-under 72-70--142.. He had four birdies and two bogeys in the second round after opening with one of each on the first day.
His best career finish at Oregon State is sole seventh at the Mark Simpson Invitational last season and his best 54-hole score is a 2-under 208 this past fall at the Itani Quality Homes Collegiate when he finished in a tie for seventh place.
“Alex’s round was so good today,” Oregon State head coach Jon Reehoorn said. “What I love about his game is that he only hit eight green in regulation and found a way to shoot 70. Mentally he doesn’t allow bad shots to faze him, and when you do that, more than likely you find a way to shoot a good score with your B and C game.”
| 6 | Oregon State | 289 | 294 | 583 |
| T4 | Alex Franklin (4) | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| T22 | Kevin Murphy (1) | 70 | 76 | 146 |
| T22 | Brian Jung (2) | 73 | 73 | 146 |
| T44 | Tyler Carlson (5) | 74 | 75 | 149 |
| T109 | Conner Kumpula (3) | 76 | 82 | 158 |
As a team, the Beavers slipped a spot to sixth place in the 24-team field despite equaling the third-best round of the day, a 6-over 294, but are only three strokes out of third place overall with a 7-over 583. Texas Tech is running away with the team title with a 13-under 563, nine strokes better than TCU’s 4-under 572.
“The conditions to start were very tough today,” Reehoorn said. “For the most part we did a good job of handling the conditions, but made a couple of big numbers that ended up being the difference between a good round and a very good round.”
The final round of the three-day, 54-hole tournament will begin at 6:50 a.m. PT on Sunday and live scoring is available on golfstat.com.
Junior Brian Jung shot a 1-over 73 for the second straight day, but moved up 15 spots due to the weather, into a tie for 22nd place. Sophomore Kevin Murphy is also tied for 22nd with a 2-over 70-76--146, while junior Tyler Carlson is tied for 44th with a 5-over 74-75--149 and sophomore Conner Kumpula is 14 over through two rounds with scores of 76-82.
