California came from from nine strokes back in the final round to win the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational by one stroke over Illinois and Florida at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Fla.
Collin Morikawa and Sebastian Crampton sank birdie putts to put the Golden Bears ahead on the 17th hole, and Morikawa and Kaiwen Liu made pars on the final hole to clinch the victory.
“Words can’t describe how happy and proud I am of all five guys,” said Coach Walker Chun of Cal, which finished last in the tournament a year ago. “We played hard and just never relented. Illinois and Florida are great teams, and to come from behind to beat those teams says so much about our character.”
The Bears finished at 287-287-284—858, 6-under-par, and won a second straight tournament after capturing their own Alister MacKenzie Invitational a week earlier.
Illinois carded a score of 279-286-294—859 to tie for second with Florida, which wound up at 282-285-292—859, followed by Vanderbilt at 291-287-283—861, followed by Auburn at 293-286-285—864 and North Florida at 290-291-289—870.
LSU shot 289-293-289—871 to tie for seventh with Texas Tech, which finished at 286-296-289—871, followed by North Carolina at 294-298-284—876 and Arizona at 292-301-286—879.
Dylan Meyer of Illinois captured the individual title at 67-66-72—205, 11-under, followed by Morikawa at 72-69-66—207, John Axelsen of Florida at 67-72-70—209, Gordon Neale of Florida at 72-67-71—210 and Mason Andersen of Arizona State at 69-71-71—211.
“This is definitely the biggest win for the team the three years I have been here,” said Morikawa, a junior from La Canada Flintridge, who collected seven birdies in his final-round 66, including an 81-foot putt on the third hole.
“To come back from that many shots behind at the start of the day shows what our team can accomplish. Every day got better, obviously on score but also the mental side throughout the week. I got off to a hot start and played very solidly today.”
Fredrik Nilehn of Texas Tech shot 71-71-70—212 to tie for sixth with Phillip Knowles of North Florida, who finished at 72-70-70—212, and Ivan Ramirez of Texas Tech, who came in at 68-74-70—212, while Trey Winstead of LSU totaled 72-70-71—213 to tie for ninth with Wells Padgett of Auburn, who wound up at 73-72-68—213.
Rounding out the scoring for Cal were K.K. Limbhasut in a tie for 17th at 73-70-72—215, Liu in a tie for 31st at 71-76-73—220, Crampton in a tie for 44th at 77-72-73—222 and Ben Doyle in a tie for 65th at 71-77-79—227.
