Hidetoshi Yoshihara of UCLA claimed the individual title and helped the Bruins win the Seattle University Redhawk Invitational by 12 strokes over Fresno State at Chambers Bay Golf Course www.chambersbaygolf.com in University Place, Wash.
UCLA, coached by Derek Freeman, won for the first time this season with a score of 269-268-278—815, 37-under-par, followed by Fresno State at 275-266-286—827, Oregon State at 276-276-285—837, Drexel at 281-273-286—840 and Texas-Arlington at 285-274-282—841.
“It was a U.S. Open golf course, it was very challenging and we set it up in a way that was score-able,” Freeman said. “Any time that you can win in a sport on this level, it becomes really special – it’s really hard.
“And we’ve been knocking on the door, we’ve been working hard, we told our guys we’ve gotta be aggressive and we came out firing on all cylinders and I’m (really) proud of them.”
Utah was sixth at 287-284-271—842, followed by Northern Colorado at 287-280-281—848, UC Irvine at 283-283-284—850 and Arkansas-Little Rock at 279-285-287—851.
California Baptist totaled 281-283-288—852 to tie for 10th with Indiana, which finished at 284-281-287—852, Seattle, which wound up at 291-273-288—852, and Sacramento State, which came in at 279-287-290—856.
Yoshihara, a junior from Irvine who finished second in the 2018 California State Amateur, claimed his second college victory with a score of 67-62-71—200, 13-under, while UCLA teammate Devon Bling shot 69-66-67—202 to tie for second with Tanner Gore of Texas Arlington, who finished at 70-67-65—202.
“More than anything, we’ve been trying to get (Yoshihara) to have a solid foundation with his swing and to understand where to place the ball,” Freeman said. “I think when he does these things he’s really successful.
“ … We had (Bling) learn how to control the golf ball. He’s got so much power and he can hit it so far that we have to teach him how to monitor that. When he’s completely in control of his swing, he shoots really good scores.”
Alex Lee of Fresno State was fourth at 67-68-68—203, followed by Ben Hallam of Cal Baptist at 69-67-68—204 and Tommy Stephenson of Fresno State at 74-62-69—205.
Sean Maruyama of UCLA shot 65-71-70—206 to tie for seventh with Joshua Matz of Northern Colorado, who totaled 68-71-67—206, Kyler Dunkle of Utah, who finished at 72-66-68—206, Nathan Cogswell of Seattle, who wound up at 72-67-67—206, and Tyler Munetake of Gonzaga, who came in at 70-70-66—206.
Anthony Truong led UC Irvine in a tie for 21st at 69-70-71—210 and Riley Bell of Sacramento State tied for 31st at 69-71-72—212.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion UCLA were Cole Madey in a tie for 13th at 69-69-70—208 and Jack Ireland in a tie for 31st at 68-71-73—212.
Playing as an individual, Eddy Lai of UCLA shot 74-67-68—209 to finish in a tie for 15th that included his Bruin teammate Patrick Murphy, also playing as an individual, who finished at 65-72-72—209.
For complete results, visit http://www.golfstat.com/2018-2019/men/mtoursp19/M3152.pdf
