The Washington State men’s golf team wrapped up the second round of the John A. Burns Intercollegiate Thursday at the Wailua Golf Club in Hawaii and will start the final round of play tied for fourth with UNLV at +5 (581).

WSU slid a bit in the standings, going from third to fourth place in the second round, but the Cougars are still in great position heading into the third and final round Friday.

No. 7 Texas continues to lead the tournament (-16, 560), followed by California (-9, 567) and Texas A&M (+1, 577).

In-state rival Washington improved its standing Thursday, starting the day in a tie for eighth and moving up to match Arizona in sixth for (+7, 583). The Cougars now lead Washington and Arizona by two strokes.

WSU has played consistently thus far, shooting (290) in the first round and (291) Thursday.

“The guys are playing really solid golf and doing a great job of battling for every stroke,” WSU Head Coach Garrett Clegg said in a WSU press release.

Sophomore Derek Bayley, who shot an even-par, 72 and was tied for 16th in the opening round, jumped up the leaderboard to tie for fourth individually after shooting a -3 (69), Thursday.

Junior Nick Mandell dropped 20 spots on the leaderboard Thursday, placing him in a tie for 25th after being tied for fifth Wednesday. Mandell shot -2 (70) in the opening round, but carding five bogies Thursday set Mandell back. Mandell shot +3 (75), Thursday and is now (+1, 145), overall.

After shooting a +1 (73), Wednesday, freshman Aaron Whalen shot -1 (71), to get him to even-par through the first two rounds (144). Whalen is now tied for 18th.

Sophomore Zach Anderson and freshman AJ Armstrong are tied for 59th (+8, 152).

The third and final round begins Friday at 10:30 a.m. PT. Live scoring updates can be found at golfstat.com

Reporting by Ryan Siefkes