Patrick Rodgers claimed the 10th victory of his Stanford career and led the Cardinal to a 15-stroke victory over Washington in the Pacific 12 Conference Men’s Championship at the Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Ariz.
Rodgers moved to within one of Tiger Woods’ school record of 11 titles and Stanford captured its eighth conference title, but the first since 1994 at nearby Tucson National Golf Club when Woods, Notah Begay and Casey Martin led the Cardinal.
“This is a special group and they’ve had an unbelievable run this spring,” said Conrad Ray, Stanford’s director of men’s golf, who also was on that 1994 team.
“Patrick has been an incredible leader, and having both Patrick and Cameron (Wilson) finish in the top-five together consistently is hard to beat. The freshmen have stepped up and contributed, which has helped carry us.”
Rodgers, a junior who will turn pro after the NCAA Championships, posted a score of 71-65-73-72–281, seven-under-par, two strokes better than Cheng-Tsung Pan of Washington, who finished at 75-70-70-68–283, and three better than teammate Wilson, who wound up at 72-71-73-68–284.
With the NCAA West Regional and the NCAAs remaining, Rodgers can tie or pass Woods.
“I couldn’t be happier for our team,” said Rodgers, who squandered a lead down the stretch in his previous tournament and was beaten by Wilson. “We’ve worked hard all year for this, and it goes back much further than the start of this season. All the guys who have put so much blood, sweat and tears into this program for the last 20 years dating back to our last conference title deserve a piece of this win.
“So many guys have worked their tails off and have put so much work into this program. Everybody is a huge part of this, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of the Stanford program.”
Joel Statler of Cal shot 74-68-76-69–287 and tied for fourth with Eric Sugimoto of USC, who totaled 74-72-73-68–287, and Blake Snyder of Washington, who came in at 76-73-70-68–287.
Lorens Chan of UCLA was seventh at 74-72-75-68–289, followed by Corey Pereira of Washington, who was eighth at 73-73-76-69–291.
Maverick McNealy of Stanford posted a score of 75-75-72-70–292 and tied for ninth with Paul Smith of USC, who shot 71-71-72-78–292, and Alex McMahon of Arizona, who finished at 71-72-75-74–292.
Stanford carded a score of 362-354-367-355–1438, followed by Washington at 368-369-370-346–1453, Cal at 368-354-382-363–1467, Colorado at 379-382-364-354–1479, USC at 377-363-379-364–1483, and Arizona State at 379-360-384-364–1487.
UCLA was seventh at 370-371-385-363–1489, followed by Oregon at 384-362-389-361–1496, Arizona at 366-374-389-374–1503, Oregon State at 373-366-394-371–1504, Washington State at 384-383-376-367–1510 and Utah at 392-387-398-384–1561.
