Teammates Ethan Ashbrook and Ethan Farnam of St. Mary’s College in Moraga set a tournament scoring record while winning the 54th Northern California Golf Association Four-Ball Championship by five strokes over Matthew Anderson and Tim Widing of the University of San Francisco at Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Pebble Beach.
Ashbrook, a junior from Santa Maria, and Farnham, a senior from Crystal Lake, Ill., posted a score of 70-66-61—197, 19-under-par, while Anderson, a junior from Canada, and Widing, a senior from Sweden, finished at 70-64-68—202, while Blake Hathcoat and Michael Slesinski of St. Mary’s were third at 68-67-70—205.
Farnham and Ashbrook couldn’t make a birdie at the beginning, but then collected 10 on the last 13 holes to pull away.
“Our first 10 holes were a nightmare, but then we figured out our strategy,” said Farnham, who barely missed a hole in one on the 12th hole. “It was at that point that we were like, ‘We got this.’ That stretch of closing holes was ridiculous.
“We were really good taking the pressure off of one another. We’re both extremely negative when we do hit bad shots, but we’re both also really good at bouncing back.”
Said Ashbrook: “We just started building on each other’s momentum.”
Ashbrook and Farnham set a tournament record for one round with their 61, and their score of 197 was two off the 54-hole mark set by 2016 winners Bobby Bucey and Brett Viboch.
When he heard about what happened, St. Mary’s Coach Scott Hardy, who was part of the winning team in this event in 2005, sent Farnham and Westbrook a text that read: “Talk about having a great day. Great playing!”
Said Anderson: “That score (61) is sick. When I saw that they posted 11-under, you just tip your cap.”
Stephen Hale and DJ Fernando of Bakersfield totaled 68-73-65—206 to tie for fourth with Jalen Griffin of San Francisco and Alex Chin of Pleasanton, who finished at 70-68-68—206, and Bobby Buchey of Concord and Brett Viboch of Sacramento, who wound up at 66-71-69—206.
John Sawin of Pebble Beach and John Jennison of San Rafael carded a score of 72-69-67—208 to tie for seventh with Mike Stieler of Oakhurst and Danny Paniccia of Fresno, who shot 68-72-68—208, and Nick Moore of Seaside and Matt Conn of San Francisco were ninth at 72-69-68—209.
Evan Chien of Irvine and Anton Ouyang finished at 69-73-68—210 to tie for 10th with Daniel Connolly of San Francisco and Daniel Sloane of Sacramento, who wound up at 68-72-70—210, and Rick Reinsberg of Lafayette and Garett Wagner of Brentwood, who came in at 71-69-70—210.
For complete results, visit https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/2797323
