May 18, 2012

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Utah Valley University's Mason Casper fired a 1-under-par 69 and moved up 12 spots Friday after Day 2 of the NCAA Regionals at Stanford Golf Course.

Casper shot an opening-round 75 and was in a tie for 63 before Friday's under-par round.

"Today Mason's ball striking was much better," UVU men's golf coach Chris Curran said. "He burned a lot of edges with the putter or it could have been a really low number."

Casper started on the back nine and dropped to +6 for the tournament with a bogey on the par-4 11 (his second hole). The rest of the way he had 14 pars and two birdies to shoot in red numbers. He birdie the par-4 15th and par-4 eighth.

The low five teams from the 13-team regional as well as the low scorer not affiliated with one of the five qualifying teams will advance to the NCAA Championships to be held at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., May 29-June 3.

California's Michael Kim leads the tournament at -9 after shooting a second round 64.

He tees off in the final round at 10:20 a.m. MT beginning with the back nine.

Live scoring of Day 3 and Day 1 and Day 2 results can be found here.