Maverick McNealy of Stanford claimed the individual title and led the Cardinal to second place behind Arizona State in the Prestige on the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West in La Quinta.
McNealy, a sophomore from Portola Valley, posted a score of 68-69-64–201, 8-under-par, to finish four strokes ahead of Xander Schauffele of San Diego State, who totaled 70-68-67–205, and Jon Rahm of Arizona State, who finished at 66-70-69–205.
“My game has felt really solid for a while, but I really started to light it up coming down the stretch of our events, especially the last six holes at our last tournament in Hawaii,” said McNealy, who claimed his third victory of the season.
“I tried to get in that mindset from the get-go today, and played possibly the best round of golf in my life. I had two bad tee balls, both of which I couldn’t swing at because I was next to a tree. But I absolutely stuffed irons all day and even hit the pin from 157 yards out on the ninth. I was happy with how I kept the pedal down during the whole round.”
Sean Crocker of USC shot 69-69-68–206 to tie for fourth with Max Rottliff of Arizona State, who wound up at 70-66-70–206, and Myles Lewis of LSU, who came in at 72-69-65–206.
Manav Shah of UCLA posted a score of 73-70-67–210 and finished in a tie for 14th that included Johan Texeira of USC, who wound up at 70-72-68–210.
Ryann Ree of San Diego State was 18th at 70-73-68–211, while Viraat Badhwar of Stanford shot 73-73-66–212 and tied for 19th with Nahum Mendoza of San Diego State, who totaled 72-68-72–212.
Jake Knapp of UCLA carded a score of 69-75-69–213 and finished in a tie for 21st that included Franklin Huang of Stanford, who totaled 74-68-71–213, and PJ Samiere of San Diego State, who wound up at 72-71-70–213.
Anthony Cecere led Pepperdine in a tie for 28th at 72-71-72–215, and Luke Vivolo of UC Davis tied for 30th at 73-73-70–216.
Arizona State posted a winning score of 279-274-280–833, 31-under-par, followed by Stanford at 288-281-268–837, and San Diego State at 284-280-277–841.
“The guys came out of hibernation today,” said Conrad Ray, Stanford’s director of men’s golf. “We were excited about their rounds and they put the pedal down after a very good start.
“It was fun to get some momentum going and to post a number for Arizona State to look at. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but a very positive move by a young team today.”
USC was eighth at 283-284-282–849, UCLA finished ninth at 284-291-284–859, UC Davis was 11th at 289-286-297–882, and Pepperdine wound up 12th at 295-297-293–885.
