2014-15 COLORADO BUFFALO GOLF NCAA Championship Final Notes – David Oraee Colorado Sports Information — David Plati, Assoc. AD/Men’s Golf Contact — 357 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 — 303/492-5626 — [email protected] ON THE RANGE… The 118th Annual NCAA Golf Championship Finals begin this week with 30 schools and six individuals from around the country comprising a 156-man field; the University of Colorado did not qualify as a team, but David Oraee did as an individual after he finished second in the NCAA Central Regional in Noblesville, Ind., on May 16 … The tournament will be held May 29-June 3 at The Concession Club in Bradenton, Fla., voted among the Top 100 Golf Courses in the United States in 2009 by Golf Magazine (opened in 2006); the championship course (7,483 yards, par-72) has the maximum slope rating that can be attained from the championship tees (155). The course features four different strains of Bermuda grass, plenty of sand traps and no side-by-side fairways, but has maybe one-third of its holes where any water comes into play … Oraee is the No. 4 seeded individual (not attached to a team) out of the six who advanced to the finals … After the third round of stroke play, the field will be cut to the top 15 teams (out of 30) plus the top nine individuals not associated with those 15 teams for Monday’s fourth and final round. The top eight schools will then continue on to the match play portion of the championship (June 2-3) ... The last Buff to shoot under par in the NCAA Finals was Ben Portie, who tied for 33rd with a 2- under 286 in 2002 at Columbus, Ohio (one of just three at CU to ever do so) ... The NCAA will crown a new champion, as two-time defending titlist Alabama did not advance out of regional play (the Crimson Tide finished one spot behind Colorado in Noblesville). QUICK SNAPSHOT – DAVID ORAEE (David’s last name is pronounced “or-ray.) Oraee becomes the 13th different Colorado Buffalo to play in the NCAA Championship Finals as an individual, the first since 2008. The highest a Buffalo has ever finished without his teammates present? That would be Hale Irwin’s 1967 win at Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, Pa. Oraee qualified by turning in a 68-70-71—209 effort at the NCAA Central/Noblesville Regional (he was tied for the lead after the first round and one shot back after 36 holes; he finished three behind Illinois’ Brian Campbell). He is currently second on the team in stroke average (72.03), one stroke behind team leader Jeremy Paul (72.00); his spring stroke average is 71.72 for 18 rounds. Golfweek has him ranked as the No. 160 player in the country, while GolfStat has him pegged at No. 193. He is majoring in Integrative Physiology and is expecting to graduate in December (he is a true four-year senior) and has plans on becoming a surgeon after his competitive golf career. STATSHOT: He has played 1,529 holes since his last score worse than a double bogey (a quadruple bogey, the only one of his collegiate career, back in March 2013). In fact in his career (2,646 holes), he has just seven holes worse than double bogey (.0026 percent). SCHEDULE: The practice round will have a shotgun format on Thursday, May 28 at 7:00 a.m. MDT; he will start on No. 18 with two other individuals who qualified – Gudmundur Kristjansson (East Tennessee State), who was sixth in the Southwest Regional in San Diego, and Tolver Dozier (Troy), who won a playoff in the Midwest Regional in Lubbock on the first hole by holing out from 138 yards -- who will also be his playing partners for the first two rounds. They will tee off on No. 1 at 7:00 a.m. MDT on Friday and off of No. 10 at 12:20 p.m. MDT on Saturday. The field will be repaired for Sunday’s third round, and to advance to Monday’s fourth round, he must be among the top nine individuals not on one of the top 15 teams. Full bio later in these notes. QUOTING DAVID ORAEE On His Career: "It really has gone by pretty fast. Looking back, I've played a lot of tournaments, gained a lot of experience and learned a lot of things. It's been fun. Overall, I would have liked to have played better at times, obviously, but I think everybody would say that. But it's been good and I've learned a lot of good things from it. It's been awesome, a great experience." On His Scoring Consistency: "I have always prided myself in being able to stay away from big numbers. My brother was really big on damage control, to minimize your mistakes. I was really brought up in playing stress-free golf. I keep things from getting away from me. The only big numbers I make are if something catastrophic happens like if I hit a ball out of bounds or do something goofy." COACH ROY EDWARDS ON ORAEE “David played a tremendous tournament in the regional, he was consistent, very focused and managed his game extremely well on a very tough golf course. “I am very excited for him. David has improved every semester, which is really hard to do. He's really been very coachable. He's a hard worker and an astute learner. And he's obviously a competitor. When you combine those things together, you get a very good player and somebody that is going to develop over time, and he did. He is disappointed that his teammates aren’t going with him, and never really celebrated that he qualified (for the finals). But he’ll be excited to take on the challenge of representing them and the University of Colorado in the tournament.” ORAEE IN FLORIDA This will be Oraee’s first collegiate tournament in the state of Florida; the closest he’s come to playing there came last year, when the Buffs competed in the NCAA Southeast Regional at Auburn. In fact, this will be just his second visit to the state; when he was 11, he competed in the 2004 Optimist International Junior Championship in Palm Beach Gardens (he was 20th with an 85-80-73—238 scorecard; one player he bested was current UCLA junior Lorens Chan). Colorado Golf Notes / 2015 NCAA Championship Finals (2-2-2) CU INDIVIDUALS IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS Oraee is the 13th Colorado player to play in the NCAA Championship Finals as an individual (two have done it twice); all but two of the previous 14 appearances have taken place in the Eastern Time Zone, as will this one by Oraee. Here's a look at CU's individual player history in the NCAA Championship Finals (when not accompanied by a full CU team): Season Location Player Class Scorecard To Par Finish Regional Finish 1956-57 Colorado Springs, Colo. Frank Bocovich Sr. 77-75—152 + 8 t-29th N/A 1961-62 Durham, N.C. Gary Polumbus Jr. 76-75—151 + 9 t-20th N/A 1962-63 Wichita, Kan. Larry McAtee Soph. 78-72—150 + 8 t-65th N/A Gary Polumbus Sr. 78-75—153 +11 t-95th N/A 1966-67 Shawnee-On-Delaware, Pa. Hale Irwin Sr. 70-72-65-79—286 - 2 1st N/A 1971-72 Cape Coral, Fla. Davis Driver Sr. 72-75-79-78—304 +16 t-70th N/A 1974-75 Columbus, Ohio Mark Hendricks Sr. 76-77-79-74—306 +18 t-63rd N/A 1976-77 Hamilton, N.Y. Tm Woodard Sr. 78-86-82—246 +30 MC N/A 1978-79 Winston-Salem, N.C. Rick Cramer Fr. 79-80—159 +15 MC N/A 1981-82 Pinehurst, N.C. Rick Cramer Sr. 77-79-75—231 +18 MC N/A 1985-86 Winston-Salem, N.C. Kevin Bolles Sr. 72-79-78—229 +13 MC N/A 1986-87 Columbus, Ohio John Lindberg Soph. 74-77-73-68—292 + 4 t-13th N/A 1992-93 Lexington, Ky. Bobby Kalinowski Jr. 75-74—149 + 5 MC t-9th (219) 2007-08 West Lafayette, Ind. Derek Tolan Jr. 74-77-84—235 +19 MC t-7th (218) 2014-15 Bradenton, Fla. David Oraee Sr. ? ? ? 2nd (209) Oraee is the third Buffalo to have advanced to the NCAA Championship Finals as an individual out of regional play, which began in 1989: Bobby Kalinowski tied for ninth in the 1993 Central Regional (77-72-70—219, +3) and Derek Tolan tied for seventh in the 2008 Central Regional (73-72-73—218), both doing so when the top two individuals without a team advanced; ironically, both advanced to the finals from regional play at the OSU Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio. BUFFALO POSTSEASON (NCAA) SCORING RECORDS The list of CU NCAA postseason golf records: Individual / Low Round 65, Hale Irwin, 1967 NCAA Championships at Shawnee on Delaware, Pa., June 23, 1967 (-7; 32-33) 65, John Lindberg, 1989 NCAA Central Regional at McKinney, Texas, May 27, 1989 (-7; 33-32) 66, Ben Portie, 2002 NCAA Championship Finals at Columbus, Ohio, May 29, 2002 (-6; 34-32) 67, Kane Webber, 2000 NCAA Central Regional at Victoria, Texas, May 20, 2000 (-4; 33-34) 68, on nine occasions (Bill Musselman 2, Merle Backlund, Bobby Kalinowski, John Lindberg, David Oraee, Jeremy Paul, John Segelke, Luke Symons) Individual / Low Tournament (54 Holes) 208, Bobby Kalinowski, 1994 NCAA Central Regional at Oklahoma City, Okla., May 19-21, 1994 (-5; 68-69-71) 209, David Oraee, 2015 NCAA Central Regional at Noblesville, Ind., May 14-16, 2015 (-9; 68-70-71) 213, Luke Symons, 2009 NCAA West Regional at Daly City, Calif., May 21-23, 2009 (-3; 70-75-68) 213, John Luoma, 1994 NCAA Central Regional at Oklahoma City, Okla., May 19-21, 1994 (E; 70-74-69) 214, John Zerwin, 1994 NCAA Central Regional at Oklahoma City, Okla., May 19-21, 1994 (+1; 71-71-72) 215, Stephen Carroll, 2003 NCAA Central Regional at Manhattan, Kan., May 15-17, 2003 (-1; 72-71-72) 216, on three occasions (John Lindberg, 1989 NCAA Central Regional; Patrick Grady, 2009 NCAA West Regional; Derek Tolan, 2009 NCAA West Regional) Individual / Low Tournament (72 Holes) 286, Hale Irwin, 1967 NCAA Championships at Shawnee on Delaware, Pa., June 21-24, 1967 (-2; 70-72-65-79) 286, Bill Musselman, 1968 NCAA Championships at Las Cruces, N.M., June 19-22, 1968 (+2; 74-76-68-68) 286, Ben Portie, 2002 NCAA Championship Finals at Columbus,