Feb. 3, 2003

TUCSON, Ariz. - The University of Houston golf team stood in 15th place after the first two rounds of the PING Arizona Intercollegiate on Monday.

UH, which is competing in its first tournament of the 2003 spring season posted a team score of 291 in the first round, which was delayed about 30 minutes due to frost. In the afternoon session, the Cougars fired a 298 for a combined 589 on the 6,793-yard, par-71 course at Arizona National.

UCLA grabbed the team lead after shooting 551 during the first two rounds. Pepperdine was second with a score of 552 while host Arizona was a close third at 553. USC, Wake Forest, Arizona State, UC Irvine, Arizona 'B', California, Long Beach State, New Mexico and Texas-El Paso rounded out the Top 10 team leaders.

Individually, freshman Zach Mowbray was the Cougars' leading player and stood in a tie for 26th place at even-par 142. After shooting 72 in the morning round, Mowbray fired a 1-under-par 70 in the second 18 holes to earn his ranking. He was the only Cougar who improved his score over the first two rounds.

Other Cougar golfers were: John Wine (72-74 -- 146, T-54), Simon Robinson (74-76 -- 150, T-70), Brett Callas (73-78 -- 151, 74) and Kevin Newman (75-83 -- 158, T-80).

Texas-El Paso's Chris Baryla was the individual leader after shooting 68-66 -- 134. He finished the first day of competition one stroke ahead of five other golfers.