USC, ranked No. 7 in the nation by Golfweek, captured the Southern Highlands Collegiate for the second straight year, winning by 10 strokes over Oklahoma State at Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas, where Collin Morikawa of Cal tied for the individual title but lost out in a playoff.
The Trojans claimed their third victory of the season, having won the Cypress Point Classic and the Gifford Collegiate during the fall, posting a score of 278-291-284–853, 11-under-par.
“We know it’s one of the best fields on probably the toughest course in a regular season tournament all year,” said USC Coach Chris Zambri, whose Trojans have finished second or better in five consecutive events. “It means a lot to come here and play well.”
Oklahoma State was second at 286-289-288–863, followed by Texas Tech at 293-287-287–867, while Stanford posted a score of 281-294-298–873 to tie for fourth with Pepperdine, which finished at 282-297-294–873.
UNLV was sixth at 288-292-294–874, followed by Oklahoma at 292-297-286–875,
Illinois at 290-297-289–876, Florida 292-303-289–884 and Southern Methodist at 287-296-304–887.
Cal finished 12th at 292-303-302–897 and San Diego State was 15th at 307-300-298–905.
Morikawa, a Cal sophomore from La Canada Flintridge, carded a score of 66-71-73–210. 6-under, to finish even with Grant Hirschman of Oklahoma, who totaled 70-72-68–210. After Morikawa missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, Hirschman won with a two-footer for birdie.
“There’s a lot to learn from this day especially but there are also many positives that kept me on top of the leaderboard,” said Morikawa, who recorded the 13th top-10 finish of his college career. “I had a couple of looks to get to seven-under but ultimately made seven pars coming down the stretch.”
Cheng Jin of USC shot 69-73-69–211 to tie for third with his Trojan teammate Justin Suh, who finished at 70-68-73–211, Jared duToit of Arizona State, who wound up at 71-71-69–211, and Ivan Ramirez of Texas Tech, who came in at 75-68-68–211.
John Oda of UNLV shot 72-70-70–212 to tie for seventh with Hannes Ronneblad of Texas Tech, who posted a score of 71-70-71–212, and Kristoffer Ventura of Oklahoma State, who totaled 73-67-72–212.
Nick Hardy of Illinois finished at 72-72-69–213 to tie for 10th with Zach Bauchou of Oklahoma State, who came in at 73-69-71–213.
Sahith Theegala led Pepperdine in a tie for 12th at 71-70-73–214, Maverick McNealy of Stanford was 16th at 67-73-75–215 and PJ Samiere of San Diego State was 17th at 74-72-70–216.
Rounding out the scoring for USC were Sean Crocker in a tie for 12th at 68-74-72–214, Andrew Levitt in a tie for 29th at 75-76-70–221 and Rico Hoey in a tie for 34th at 71-78-74–223.
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