Lavery qualifies for Buick

Mike Lavery, a 2003 graduate of UC Irvine who won the Big West

Conference individual title as a senior, shot a 5-under-par 66 Monday

at Encinitas Ranch Golf Course to qualify for this weekend’s Buick

Invitational at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla.

Lavery will be paired with Tripp Isenhour and Ryan Palmer for the

first two days of the PGA Tour event. He will tee off on the 10th tee

of the Souther Course at Torrey Pines at 9:15 a.m. today and will

begin play on the first tee of the North course at 10:09 a.m. Friday.

Both days, he will be playing directly behind the threesome that

features Tiger Woods.

The runner-up in the Costa Mesa city championship in each of the

last two years, falling in a playoff last summer, Lavery was UCI’s

male Big West Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2002-03. He

averaged 72.47 strokes per round with four top-10 finishes at UCI

last season, earning first-team All-Big West Conference honors.