Robledo leads the pack for Cougars at C-USA Championships

Freshman Roman Robledo is tied atop the leaderboard and has the Cougars sitting six shots back of the top three heading into today’s final round of the Conference USA Championship.

Robledo opened with a 70 and followed by shooting a 68 in the second round at the par-72 course at Texarkana Country Club in Arkansas to stay even with Central Florida’s Greg Eason.

Robledo birdied four on the back nine, and six total in the second round.

The Cougars were tied for fifth after one round of play after shooting 292 as a team, but slipped to sixth with a 296 score in the second round.

“Overall, individually, we’ve done pretty well,” Robledo said. “We hit the ball well.

“Hopefully we’ll do better tomorrow.”

Helping Robledo carry the Cougars is sophomore Curtis Reed, who is tied for 12th.

Reed opened with a 69, tied for the second best first round score.

He slipped in the second round though, shooting a 77, bogeying four of the final five holes in the second round.

Junior James Ross has also had a solid showing for the Cougars, sitting at three-over after shooting scores of 74 and 75 in the opening rounds.

The Cougars other two golfers competing, Bryn Flanagan and Jesse Droemer, sit in 43rd and 53rd place, respectively.

“As a team, we all need to have a low round and show what we really have,” Robledo said.

“We need to be more aggressive, smarter targets, get the ball closer to the hole. If we can get four good scores in it would definitely boost our confidence.”

Weather has not been an issue thus far for the Cougars, despite some wind during play.

“The wind definitely played a factor,” Robledo said. “But it’s nothing that we haven’t dealt with before this season.”

Flanagan opens the final round for the Cougars at 8 a.m., followed by Droemer at 8:10 a.m., Ross at 8:20 a.m., Reed at 8:30 a.m. and Robledo at 8:40 a.m.

“We’re definitely going the right way,” Robledo said.

“We’re driving well, hitting the ball well. It’s just putting shots together.”

On May 7, UH will learn if the Cougars qualified for the NCAA Tournament. 81 teams and 45 individuals are invited to compete.

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