Nothing seemed to drop for the Cougars on Tuesday – except for their ranking on the leaderboard.

WSU struggled mightily on the greens during the third round of the Pac-12 Men’s Golf Tournament.

 Time after time, the Cougars would miss important short putts by mere inches.

While all six of WSU’s golfers were afflicted with short game woes, Derek Bayley had an especially difficult day. Head Coach Garrett Klegg mentioned that the freshman had missed at least seven putts inside of four feet, by his count. Bayley entered the day in second place.

“Derek was in a place where he’d never been,” the coach remarked of his high individual ranking. “It was a real tough day for him.”

Despite carding a 5-under, 65, in the second round on Monday, the only birdie Bayley had yesterday was on the second hole. He finished with 4 bogeys, including a double bogey on the 11th hole, and fell from second place into a tie for eighth. Bayley’s overall score through three rounds is 1-under, 209.

Senior Michael Anderson led the Cougars after shooting an even par, 70. However, he also had some problems with his putting game, and he thinks the hot weather (nearly 80 degrees on Tuesday) could be partially to blame.

“The greens are getting real firm and baked out, so I think they’re getting a little bumpy,” Anderson said. Because of this, they seemed to be playing faster than usual.

Now in sixth place, Anderson was able to manage three birdies to offset his three bogeys on the day. His best stretches came at the beginning and end of his round – he carded an overall 1-under through the first six holes, as well as a 1-under over the last eight.

“I got off to a good start and then made some short game mistakes early that made it tough to have a really great round,” Anderson said. “But I was able to string up some pars and made a birdie (hole 16) coming down the last few holes to get my score back to even. All in all, I think it was a good day.”

Redshirt senior Sang Lee shot a 3-over, 73, on the day to bring his three round total to 5-over, 215. Sophomore Nick Mandell and freshman Brian Mogg both carded 4-over, 74s, and redshirt senior Alex Wagner finished with a 13-over, 83. Since Wagner’s score was the highest, it was not added to the overall WSU team score.

After carding the second-worst cumulative score yesterday (+16), Washington State fell from a tie for third place after Round 2 into a tie for seventh place with California after Round 3. The Cougars trail the first-place Arizona State Sun Devils by 29 strokes, so it’s difficult to conjure up any realistic expectations of a team victory. Anderson suggested that WSU aims for a Top-4 finish in order to continue playing at the NCAA Regionals.

Klegg is looking forward to the Cougars putting this round behind them. He wondered aloud whether or not the Cougars relaxed slightly after reaching third place halfway through the tournament on Monday.

“If the guys went to bed thinking they’d accomplished something, hopefully this will wake them up and they’ll play good golf tomorrow,” Klegg said.

WSU will be paired with California and UCLA for today’s fourth and final round at the Palouse Ridge Golf Course. Wagner will tee off of the 10th hole at 8:00 a.m. Mogg, Mandell, Lee, Bayley, and Anderson will tee off with their respective pairings at 11-minute intervals.

Reporting by Spencer Anderson