PORTLAND, Ore – At first, it seemed like a mistake on the online scoreboard.
Birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie.
But it was no error, as graduating senior
Aidan Schumer, after posting a disappointing +5 in the first round of the Cascade Conference Championships on Monday, began his round on Tuesday with a flabbergasting six straight birdies.
By the time he finished his 10
th hole, Schumer was at -8, which already would have matched both the conference and program record for best ever round relative to par. He managed to shave off one more stroke in his final eight holes, to finish with a spectacular, bogey-free round of nine under par; better than any player in both UBC Thunderbirds and Cascade Collegiate Conference history.
Unfortunately for Schumer, the East Course at Glendoveer Golf and Tennis Club is playing at 73 for this tournament and formal round records are judged by total strokes rather than relative to par, so Schumer's stunning 64 merely tied both the official program and conference records, despite both of them being set in rounds with par at 72.
Teammate
Dylan MacDonald also tied both records with a 64 in the UBC Thunderbirds Men's Invitational in the fall, an event in which MacDonald also set a new program record for lowest score in a 54-hole tournament.
Others played golf on Tuesday, too.
In fact, Schumer overshadowed a very strong overall day from the T-Birds men (-11), who ballooned a one-stroke lead after day one of the three-day, three-round event into a 16-stroke advantage over Lewis-Clark State (+5) through 36 holes.
Behind Schumer (-4), who co-leads the event with Lucas Rynearson of College of Idaho, UBC teammates
Mackenzie Bickell (-1) and
John Paul Kahlert (-1) sit in a tie for third. Right behind them are
Jake Houston (E) in sixth and
Dylan MacDonald (+1) in 11
th. All five UBC men have realistic medalist aspirations heading into the final round.
The T-Birds women also continue to lead their side of the Championships. An up and down day saw their nine-stroke advantage after round one dwindle to almost nothing at one point on Tuesday morning, but a strong back nine saw the 'Birds (+17) build a 10-stroke advantage over Oregon Tech (+27) when all scorecards were turned in.
Elizabeth Labbe (-5) would have been a more than deserving headliner for UBC were it not for Schumer's historic performance.
Already holding the lead after round one, she somehow improved by five strokes through her second turn around the course, shooting a 68 (-5) on Tuesday to post the best total score of anyone on either side of the tournament through two days. Labbe needed nearly all of that improvement to hold off Oregon Tech's Quincy Beyrouty (-3) who fired a 69 on Tuesday to keep the pressure on the reigning CCC Player of the Year.
The only player within striking distance of Labbe and Beyrouty is T-Bird
Una Chou (+2), who carded a tidy 73 (E) on Tuesday. Chou and Labbe are two of nine graduating players between the two veteran UBC sides.
A format change is in store for the final round of the event on Wednesday, where the shotgun start in the first two rounds will replaced by a split tee. The first groups start at 8:00 a.m. (PT) with the women beginning on the first hole and the men on the 10
th. As the leaders on both sides, UBC will be in the last five groups for the CCC season finale, after which tournament and season-long awards will be handed out.
