Friday, May 16, 2014

Cardinal wins the NCAA Eugene Regional advancing to the NCAA Championship led by Patrick Rodgers' record-tying 11th career victory



Final Results
The Cardinal completes a wire-to-wire NCAA Regional win at the Eugene CC, its 6th of the year, to advance to the NCAA Championship at Prairie Dunes GC in Wichita, Kansas next week.  This win makes it 5 tournament wins in the team's last 6 events including 4 wins in a row.  Stanford beat Oregon by 1 shot, besting the Ducks who were playing on their home course.  Once again Patrick Rodgers (66-67-71 204 6-under) led the way winning his 6th title of the year and his record-tying 11th career win pulling even with Tiger Woods for that honor. Patrick was the only player in the field to finish under par as he won by 6 shots over Oregon's Thomas Lin.

A total of six Pac-12 teams advanced to the NCAA Championship from the six NCAA regionals with their regional finishes shown - top 5 teams advanced from each regional:  Stanford (1st), Oregon (2nd), Washington (2nd), Cal (T4), USC (T4), UCLA (5th).  ASU (6th) and Colorado (12th) failed to advance.

Final team scoring is shown below:
Final Team Leaderboard - click to enlarge
Final round scorecards are shown below:
Final round scorecards - click to enlarge
Cameron Wilson, one of 3 finalists with Patrick for the Ben Hogan Award which recognizes the nation's finest collegiate golfer, once again was a strong contributor with his rounds of 71-68-74 213 to tie for 5th individually.  Viraat Badhwar (70-73-73 216 T14) had a tie for 14th finish, David Boote (69-74-77 220 T22) tied for 22nd and Maverick McNealy (73-82-79 234 T64) tied for 64th.

Patrick Rodgers' winning scorecards are shown below:
Patrick Rodgers' winning scorecards - click to enlarge

Gostanford.com provided this final recap of the event --- See recap article with video
Patrick Rodgers won the NCAA Eugene Regional Championships in convincing fashion Saturday, and in doing so tied Tiger Woods’ Stanford record with 11 career victories. Rodgers’ effort also made it a daily double for the victorious Cardinal, as the team has produced a medalist in each of its six wins this season.

Despite shooting a final-round 15-over, its highest score to par since its first round of the season at the Fighting Illini Invitational on Sept. 13, Stanford held on to win its third NCAA Regional crown since 1996 by one stroke over host Oregon. The last NCAA Regional win for the Cardinal came in 2010.

The trip to the NCAA Championships is the seventh for Stanford in the last 10 seasons under Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray.

Stanford (276-282-295) was 13-over for the tournament. Oregon (+14) was second ahead of Oklahoma (+20), Houston (+35) and South Carolina (+40).

The low five teams will advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be contested May 23-28 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas. Wichita State is the host institution.

Rodgers (66-67-71) was 1-over in his final round at Eugene Country Club to finish the 54-hole event at 6-under. He was the only player to finish in the red on the par-70 course, as Oregon's Thomas Lin was second at even-par.

Rodgers, the Pac-12 Conference champion, has won two straight and four of his last five outings. His only tournament without a win during that stretch was a runner-up finish to teammate Cameron Wilson at the Western Intercollegiate.

Wilson was third with a 3-over, including a 4-over 74 in his final circuit. It was the eighth straight top-10 showing for the Ben Hogan Award finalist.

Viraat Badhwar (70-73-73) placed in the top-20 for the second time in as many tournaments, checking in with a tie for 14th at 6-over. David Boote (69-74-77) tied for 22nd at 10-over.

Maverick McNealy (73-82-79) tied for 64th in his NCAA Regional Championships debut.


Round 2 Results
Stanford widened it's lead to 9 strokes over Oklahoma and 11 strokes over Oregon.  The Cardinal is 25 strokes ahead of those tied for 5th, the cutline to determine who advances to the NCAA Championship next week.

Patrick Rodgers continued his brilliant play as he widened his individual lead to 6 strokes on rounds of 66-67 133.  Cameron Wilson with rounds of 71-68 139 is one of those tied for 2nd overall.

“Our guys fought hard after another slow start on the first five or six holes,” said Conrad Ray, Stanford’s Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf. “The hole locations and course setup were very demanding, as they should be at this time of year. We stuck to our game plan and we’re happy with how we played to the very end. There is one more day and a ton of golf left.”

The 2nd round team leaderboard is shown below:
Round 2 Team leaderboard - click to enlarge

David Boote (69-74 143) and Viraat Badhwar (70-73 143) are tied for 14th overall and Maverick McNealy struggled (73-82 155) and is 64th overall.

Round 2 scorecards are included below.
Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge


Round 1 Results
The Cardinal took the first round lead by 4 shots over Oklahoma firing a 4-under 276 team total led by Patrick Rodgers' tournament leading 66, followed by David Boote's 69, Viraat Badhwar's 70, Cameron Wilson's 71 and Maverick McNealy's 73.  The team leaderboard is shown below after the first round:
Round 1 Team Leaderboard

The individual scorecards for Stanford's team are shown below:
Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge
Gostanford.com posted the following comments about the first round.
EUGENE, Ore. – A barrage on the back nine of Eugene Country Club put the Stanford men’s golf team in the driver’s seat of the NCAA Eugene Regional Championships Thursday.

Stanford’s four scoring players combined to go 5-under after making the turn to give the Cardinal a 4-under 276 and four-stroke lead over second-place Oklahoma.

“We started a bit slow, but played the middle holes really well,” said Conrad Ray, the Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf. ““The course was perfect and the greens were fast. Our guys need to understand that we need to stick to our game plan, and there is still a lot of golf left.”

The 13-team field continues the three-day event Friday with live results available at GoStanford.com. The low five teams will advance to the NCAA Championships.

Clubhouse leader Patrick Rodgers was 4-under with six birdies, four coming on the back nine. Rodgers was 1-under heading into the back and added birdies on 10, 12, 13 and 14. He bogeyed the par-4 17th and punched in a par on 18 for his 66.

David Boote is tied for sixth after a 69 on the par-70 course. Boote was 2-over through eight but stormed back with four back-nine birdies.

“Patrick did a nice job leading us today, and it was nice to see Boote turn in a red number,” Ray said.

Viraat Badhwar birdied three of the first five holes on the back nine to move to 2-under. A double bogey on 18 put him at even-par for a share of 11th. Cameron Wilson tied for 14th at 71.

Maverick McNealy was even on the back nine and signed a 73. 


NCAA Regional Background by Gostanford.com
The Lowdown
• No. 3 Stanford enters the NCAA Eugene Regional Championships as the top-seeded squad while seeking the third regional title in program history. Stanford won the title in 1996 and 2010.

• The regional bid is the 16th consecutive for the Cardinal, and Stanford has advanced to the NCAA Championships in six of the last nine seasons.

• Stanford enters the event as winners of three straight tournaments – and four of its last five – along with claiming the program’s first Pac-12 Conference title since 1994. Stanford’s only event without a win was a two-stroke setback to host UNLV at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters (March 7-9).

• The Cardinal has won five times this season. In the last 17 seasons, only one team surpassed four wins (the 2007 national champion team had seven victories). In 10 tournaments on the season, Stanford has not finished lower than seventh and placed fifth or higher eight times.

• Stanford has won eight national titles and twice been the NCAA runner-up. The Cardinal will be playing for a chance at its first title since 2007.

The Course
• The event will be played at the par-70, 6,990-yard Eugene Country Club, one of six 54-hole regional tournaments conducted May 15-17.

The Field
• Top-seeded Stanford will be joined by Houston, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Baylor, Big South champion Liberty, host Oregon, Tennessee, North Florida, East Tennessee State, UT-Chattanooga, Missouri Valley champion Wichita State and Big Sky champion Northern Colorado.

Last Time at the NCAA Regional Championships – May 16-18, 2013
• Stanford finished seventh at the 2013 NCAA Columbus Regional Championships and failed to advance to the national finale.

• New Mexico won the team title at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course and Stanford was five shots behind fifth-place Texas Tech.

• Patrick Rodgers tied for 18th at 7-over 220.

One Team, Two Ben Hogan Award Finalists
• Cameron Wilson and Patrick Rodgers were named two of three finalists for the Ben Hogan Award, as announced May 7. Rodgers and Wilson are just the second teammates ever named finalists in the same season, joining Peter Uihlein and Kevin Tway of Oklahoma State (2011).

• Georgia Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans is the third finalist, and all three players rank among the top 10 in each of the four ranking systems (the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking, Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and Golfstat Rankings).

• The trio will attend a black-tie banquet at Texas’ Colonial Country Club on May 18, prior to the start of the PGA Tour’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. The winner will be crowned at the banquet, which will be streamed online beginning at 6 p.m. (PT).

• Rodgers is a finalist for the second time in his collegiate career, having previously received an invitation to the Colonial Country Club as a freshman in 2012. The native of Avon, Ind., is the world’s top-ranked amateur golfer according to both the World Amateur Golf Ranking as well as the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking.

• Rodgers is the fourth player ever to earn two trips to Fort Worth as a finalist, joining Georgia’s Chris Kirk (2006, 2007), Oklahoma State’s Rickie Fowler (2008, 2009) and UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay (2011, 2012).

• Heading into the NCAA Regional, Rodgers has five collegiate victories to his credit in 2014 to pull within one of Tiger Woods’ all-time Stanford record for career wins (11). In his last five events, Rodgers has four wins and a runner-up finish. His victories came at the Erin Hills Invitational, The Goodwin, Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, Prestige at PGA West and Pac-12 Championships.

• Rodgers, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, is currently ranked second in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and third according to Golfstat. In 10 tournaments this year, he boasts eight top-10 finishes and a stroke average of 69.55. On the amateur circuit, he was a member of the winning United States Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams last summer and finished with a 5-1-2 record.

• Wilson, who hails from Rowayton, Conn., is ranked second in the Golfstat rankings and fifth by Golfweek/Sagarin. He corralled his first two collegiate wins this season, opening the campaign with a victory at the Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields and then taking medalist honors at the Western Intercollegiate this spring. For the year, he placed among the top 15 in all 10 events, with six of those finishes in the top five.

• The first-team All-Pac-12 selection carded a season average of 69.81 and helped lead Stanford to its first conference title in two decades and a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA West Regional in Eugene, Ore. He was a finalist for the Byron Nelson Award, given to a graduating senior based upon golf and academic achievements as well as character. In addition, he finished first in the U.S. Palmer Cup rankings and will represent the country in June at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey, England.

• The Ben Hogan Award is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the 12-month period dating from the previous award’s banquet.

League’s Top Coach and Player
• Patrick Rodgers was named the Pac-12 Conference Men’s Golfer of the Year and Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray was tabbed Pac-12 Coach of the Year in a voting by the league’s head coaches on April 28.

• Rodgers is the fourth different Stanford golfer to earn Golfer of the Year honors, and the first since Rob Grube shared the award with Arizona State’s Alejandro Canizares in 2006. A semifinalist for the Hogan Award given annually to the nation’s top collegiate golfer, Rodgers has finished in the top five in six events this season and has placed outside the top 10 just twice in 10 events.

• Ray, in his 10th year as head coach, led Stanford to its eighth Pac-12 Championship and first since 1994. It’s the second time Ray earned league coach of the year honors, having also earned the distinction in 2007.

The Last Time Out
• For the first time in 20 years, Stanford hoisted the Pac-12 Conference Championship trophy.

• Taking a 21-stroke lead into the final round of the 72-hole event at The Gallery Golf Club, the third-ranked Cardinal put it in cruise control with a 2-under 1,438 (362-354-367-355) for the eighth title in program history and first since 1994. In fact, the 1994 title was won 20 years ago just 13 miles south at Tucson National Golf Course.

• Stanford’s showing was 15 strokes better than second-place Washington. It was the largest margin of victory at the Pac-12 Championships since 2009 when Washington won by 18 strokes.
Stanford became the seventh different Pac-12 school to win the conference title since 2004.

• Patrick Rodgers accounted for the program’s 21st individual league medalist honor, the most of any team in the Pac-12. Rodgers finished at 7-under to win by two strokes over Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan and has won 10 times in his career, including four this spring.

• Cameron Wilson (72-71-73-68) was third after a spectacular 4-under with five birdies to close the senior’s final conference tournament.

The Next Time Out
• The low five teams and the low individual not on those teams from each regional will advance to the finals. The NCAA Championships will be contested May 23-28 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas. Wichita State is the host institution.

-- #GoStanford --

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