Stanford placed four players in the top 10 en route to winning the Pacific 12 Conference Men’s Championship, and Collin Morikawa of California took home the individual title in cold and breezy conditions at Eugene Country Club www.eugenecc.com in Eugene, Ore.
The Cardinal claimed its third straight victory and collected its 11th conference title by rallying from four strokes down in the final round, finishing with a score of 359-346-349-359—1413, 7-under-par, while UCLA was second at 353-352-348-367—1420, followed by California at 357-350-343-371—1421, and Arizona State at 369-354-356-364—1443.
“I think the wind surprised everyone today, but we did a good job all week keeping the big numbers off the card,” said Stanford Coach Conrad Ray, whose team has won the Pac-12 title four times in the last six years. “We had a couple, but dodged the bullet and made the birdie putts when it mattered.
“All week, we kind of made our birdies on the back nine and did that again today. Everyone contributed in a good way and I was happy for the guys to pull it out. Momentum is a real thing in team golf and I think our guys are feeling that.
“Our guys are motivated to see where we can ride this thing. We have great young team and they are hungry to go win.”
Stanford, which recently captured The Goodwin and the Western Intercollegiate, claimed three straight victories for the first time since 2013-14, when it won The Goodwin, the Western Intercollegiate, the Pac-12 Championships and an NCAA Regional.
Oregon totaled 364-353-357-377—1451 to tie for fifth with Utah, which finished at 365-351-363-372—1451, while USC was seventh at 359-354-360-379—1452, followed by Washington at 362-364-363-375—1464, Arizona at 367-364-356-383—1470, Colorado at 358-359-377-386—1480, Oregon State at 381-355-377-380—1493 and Washington State at 382-375-383-400—1541.
Morikawa, a Cal senior from La Canada Flintridge, birdied the last three holes and four of the last eight to take the individual title with a score of 68-70-64-70—272, followed by Kyler Dunkle of Utah at 70-64-69-73—276, Cole Madey of UCLA at 67-69-69-74—279, Justin Suh of USC at 69-65-71-75—280, Isaiah Salinda of Stanford at 76-66-69-70—281, and Devon Bling of UCLA at 70-73-67-72—282.
“This is definitely one of the most special wins so far,” said Morikawa, who collected his fifth college victory. “To have the Pac-12s back at Eugene Country Club where the NCAAs were held my freshman year, and to come back three years later and win is very memorable.
“I knew I was playing well this week and just wanted to put everything out there. I just took it one shot at a time and made my way through the round. I knew where I stood with a few holes left and I had a great up-and-down on 15 to put myself in position to close it out on the final three holes.”
Brandon Wu of Stanford shot 70-70-70-73—283 to tie for seventh with Eddy Lai of UCLA, who finished at 72-70-67-74—283, while Daulet Tuleubayev of Stanford totaled 67-70-74-72—283 to tie for 10th with Ryan Gronlund of Oregon, who wound up at 73-73-67-71—284 and David Snyder of Stanford, who came in at 71-74-68-71—284.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion Stanford were Nate Menon in a tie for 23rd at 79-67-71-73—290, and Henry Shimp in a tie for 37th at 75-73-71-75—294.
Stanford collected 10 birdies on the last seven holes, including three in a row by Tuleubayev. Snyder finished birdie-birdie, Salinda and Wu birdied No. 17 and Menon birdied two of his last six holes.
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