Noah Woolsey of Washington, a senior from Pleasanton, Calif., claimed the individual title and led the Huskies to a three-stroke victory over Stanford in the Pacific 12 Conference Championships at Aldarra Golf Club in Sammamish, Wash.
Woolsey, who played at Amador Valley High School, posted a score of 65-71-68-72—276, 8-under-par, to win by one stroke over Barclay Brown of Stanford, who shot 68-67-68-74—277, while Yuri Moriyama of Oregon was third at 68-69-71-70—278, followed by Jose Luis Bellester of Arizona State at 68-70-72-72—282, and Justin Biwer of Colorado at 73-74-67-69—283.
“I was pretty nervous and I didn’t hit any really good shots (early in the final round),” said Woolsey, who claimed the fourth title of his college career. “That freaked me out because I wasn’t comfortable at all, but I made some really good up-and-downs and some good putts. Once I got to 10, I started to feel more comfortable.”
Woolsey was 2-over through eight holes before turning things around by making birdies on the ninth, 11th and 12th holes to take the lead, but a double-bogey 6 at No. 17 sliced his lead to one stroke.
On the final hole, Woolsey hit his tee shot into the rough before hitting a brilliant approach shot to inside 10 feet of the hole and two-putted for a winning par.
“It was spectacular,” Washington Coach Alan Murray said of Woolsey’s second shot at No. 18. “It was about seven or eight feet away from the hole, an awesome golf shot under intense pressure with only a one-shot lead.
“Noah’s a quality player and a quality kid, and he’s been showing up whenever we need him throughout all his time here. The whole team is happy for him. He’s absolutely earned it.”
Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford totaled 78-67-70-69—284 to tie for sixth with Jackson Rivera of USC, who finished at 73-68-74-69—284, and Blake Tomlinson of Utah, who wound up at 72-73-69-70—284.
Preston Summerhays of Arizona State was ninth at 71-71-71-72—285, while Sampson Zheng of California shot 71-73-73-69—286 to tie for 10th with Carson Barry of Oregon State, who finished at 72-74-72-68—286, Nate Stember of Oregon, who wound up at 70-74-71-71—286, and Christian Banke of Arizona, who came in at 72-71-72-71—286.
Pablo Ereno led UCLA in a tie for 14th at 68-69-78-72—287.
Eighth-ranked Washington claimed its seventh conference title with a score of 346-360-354-362—1422, 2-over, while Stanford was second at 359-353-357-356—1425, followed by Arizona State in third at 346-364-357-363—1430, Oregon at 349-368-362-353—1432, and California at 361-364-367-354—1446.
UCLA was sixth at 357-358-368-371—1454, followed by USC at 362-356-380-358—1456, while Oregon State shot 357-372-375-359—1463 to tie for eighth with Utah, who finished at 373-362-363-365—1463.
Colorado was 10th at 373-379-361-359—1472, followed by Arizona at 372-371-365-368—1476 and Washington State at 363-382-363-370—1478.
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