Stanford put three players in the top 10 en route to a dominant 29-stroke victory over arch-rival California, winning the Pacific 12 Conference Men’s Golf Championship for the third consecutive year in strong winds at the Country Club in Salt Lake City.
The Cardinal posted a score of 352-336-348-366–1402, 18-under-par, while the Golden Bears finished at 350-343-355-383–1431.
“It was the toughest day we’ve had so far,” said Stanford Coach Conrad Ray, who played on Stanford’s 1994 NCAA Championship team with Tiger Woods, Casey Martin and Notah Begay. “I was proud of our guys and they really hung in there. We actually had a slow start, the wind was blowing and it was chilly. We weathered the storm, so to speak. They hit solid shots and tried to mitigate big numbers. It was a good battle with Cal and USC; they’re awesome teams. This league is as strong as you will find in college golf, so to come out on top this week is a really big deal for us.
“You could go down the list. Franklin Huang just put in his second top 10 in a row, third top 15. He played great. David Boote, our senior captain, led us all week. Maverick McNealy made a few birdies there at the end to finish top 10. He’s been our horse all year and one of the top players in college golf, if not the top player. All around, a huge team effort and really happy the way it came together.”
Arizona State was third at 359-352-364-364–1439, followed by Washington at 360-355- 360-368–1443 and USC at 356-348-363-381–1448, while Oregon totaled 370-356-366-367–1459 to tie for sixth with Colorado, which came in at 360-363-371-365–1459.
UCLA was eighth at 358-365-360-382–1465, followed by Washington State at 380-365-357-374–1476, Arizona at 361-367-374-380–1482, Oregon State at 371-365-372-377–1485 and Utah at 378-363-364-391–1496.
Jon Rahm of Arizona State and Spain claimed the individual title with a score of 70-66-68-68–272, 12-under, followed by Jordan Gumberg of Arizona, who shot 68-71-69-68–276, while Boote of Stanford carded a score of 68-66-70-73–277 to tie for third with K.K. Limbhasut of Cal, who wound up at 66-66-66-79–277.
Huang of Stanford was fifth at 66-72-68-73–279, followed by his Cardinal teammate, McNealy, at 69-71-69-72–281, while Jonathan Garrick of UCLA totaled 67-68-69-78–282 to tie for seventh with Jeremy Paul of Colorado, who came in at 67-68-74-73–282.
Aaron Wise of Oregon finished at 73-69-71-70–283 to tie for ninth with Corey Pereira of Washington, who recorded a score of 72-69-69-73–283.
Rico Hoey led USC in a tie for 11th at 70-70-72-72–284.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion Stanford were Jeffrey Swegele in a tie for 11th at 76-64-71-73–284, Viraat Badhwar in a tie for 15th at 74-68-70-75–287, and Brandon Wu in a tie for 28th at 75-67-75-75–292.
