Justin Suh of USC captured the individual title and led the Trojans to their record 20th Pacific 12 Conference Men’s Championship, but the first since 2011, at Rolling Hills Country Club in Rolling Hills Estates.
The Trojans won for the second time this season with a score of 347-340-351- 351—1389, 31-under-par, followed by Colorado at 348-351-347-347—1393, Arizona State at 353-349-341-354—1397, Stanford at 346-346-362-347—1401, California at 347-356-350-351–1404, and UCLA at 361-349-355-345—1410.
“This feels awesome, it feels really awesome,” said USC Coach Chris Zambri, who collected his third conference title in 12 seasons in charge of the Trojans. “I am so excited for the program and these guys. It feels great.”
Washington State was seventh at 357-358-342-355—1412 , followed by Arizona at 351-350-365-356—1422, Washington at 356-356-353-359—1424, Oregon State at 352-360-360-359—1431, Oregon at 358-353-366-358—1435 and Utah at 371-345-370-359—1445.
Suh, a junior from San Jose, won his USC record fifth tournament of the season and sixth of his career with a score of 68-64-65-71—268, pulling away for a four-stroke victory with an eagle on the 16th hole and a birdie on the 17th.
“It was rough,” said Suh, who tied for ninth in the Pac-12 tournament last year. “I had nothing going (in the final round) and we were always on the clock. It was tough playing smart golf because we really couldn’t go through our whole routine and it was a little rushed.
“On No. 15, I asked Justin (Silverman, USC assistant coach) where do I stood and he said I was one ahead. I knew coming down I had to finish strong. That eagle and birdie helped a lot.
“It feels great. It was a long four days, but it feels great. Everything paid off, everything we worked for, especially the preparation we did as a team and for the coaches to help us out on the course means a lot.”
Yannik Paul of Colorado shot 68-69-68-67—272 to tie for second with Carl Yuan of Washington, who totaled 67-68-70-67—272, George Cunningham of Arizona, who finished at 67-67-69-69—272, and Ross Macdonald of Colorado, who wound up at 69-69-67-67—272.
Koichiro Ishika of Arizona State was sixth at 69-69-66-69—273, followed by Collin Morikawa of Cal at 67-71-70-66—274, while Jeffrey Swegle of Stanford shot 67-65-74-69—275 to tie for eighth with Zach Anderson of Washington State, who totaled 72-68-65-70—275, and Franklin Huang of Stanford wound up at 65-69-71-71—276 to tie for 10th with Cole Madey of UCLA, who came in at 68-68-70-70—276.
Rounding out the scoring for conference champion USC were Cheng Jin, who posted a score of 68-71-71-70—280 to finish in a tie for 13th that included teammate Kaito Onishi at 75-64-71-70—280, Ryan Slater in a tie for 19th at 69-69-71-73—282, Issei Tanabe in a tie for 23rd at 70-73-73-67—283, and Kyle Suppa in a tie for 58th at 72-72-75-73—292.
For complete results, visit esults.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=14956.
