Collin Morikawa of California claimed the individual title and led the Golden Bears to their second straight victory by 36 strokes over Loyola Marymount in the Farms Invitational at the Farms Golf Club https://www.thefarmsgolfclub.com in Rancho Santa Fe.
Cal, which also won the Ka’anapali Classic Collegiate Invitational in November, posted a score of 283-286-274—843, 21-under-par, followed by Loyola Marymount at 297-291-291—879, Long Beach State at 290-304-290—884, California Baptist at 300-302-288—890 and New Mexico State at 308-302-299—909.
“The team played really well today and it was fun to see,” Coach Walter Chun of Cal said. “Our guys played with purpose and wanted to make a statement. They made their statement and it’s a great way to start spring.”
Sacramento State was sixth at 306-308-304—918, followed by UC Riverside at 308-
317-296—921, Idaho at 309-311-306—926, Wichita State at 313-314-310—337 and the University of San Diego at 322-317-317—956.
Morikawa, who eagled the 18th hole in round two by holing a 20-yard shot from the sand, birdied his final four holes in the final round to card a score of 67-71-65—203, 13-under, followed by Riley Elmes of Loyola Marymount at 70-72-72—214, while Sebastian Crampton of Cal shot 72-73-70—215 to tie for third with his Golden Bear teammate K.K. Limbhasut, who finished at 71-74-70—215.
“I didn’t feel completely in synch with my game, but used what I had and was able to find some rhythm in some parts of the round,” said Morikawa, a senior from La Canada Flintridge, who won for the second time this season and the fourth time in his Cal career. “Finishing with four birdies to close out the tournament felt awesome and I’ll definitely use this momentum heading into our next event.
“Starting off the spring with a win is great. This week will give us a lot of confidence heading into the next few events and we’ll use this experience in the future. That said, we still made a lot of big numbers, which we’ll have to get rid of if we want to compete throughout nationals.”
Hunter Epson of Long Beach State recorded a score of 75-73-69—217 to tie for fifth with Jamie Cheatham of Cal, who wound up at 76-73-68—217, while Ben Hallam of California Baptist shot 70-77-71—218 to tie for seventh with Christian Banke of San Diego State, who finished at 74-68-76—218, Won Jun Lee of Arizona State, who totaled
72-75-71—218, and Newport Laparojkit of San Diego State, who came in at 76-71-71—218.
Michael Wong led UC Riverside in a tie for 12th at 75-74-71—220, while Ethan Davidson of Sacramento State tied for 25th at 77-72-76—225 and George Gardner of San Diego tied for 42nd at 80-77-75—232.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion Cal were James Song in 11th at 82-68-69—219, Kaiwen Liu in a tie for 16th at 76-73-74—223, and Ben Doyle in a tie for 18th at 73-76-75—224.
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