Saturday, October 18, 2014

The Cardinal compete in the US Collegiate tourney in Georgia


The young 4th ranked Cardinal team travels to Alpharetta, Georgia outside of Atlanta to compete in the US Collegiate event against another strong field including traditional powers Texas, Georgia Tech (the host team) and Oklahoma State.  The field includes two other Pac-12 teams, UCLA and Washington.

Stanford sent out all underclassmen again including freshman Franklin Huang who is playing in his first college event after firing qualifying rounds of 64 and 67.  Maverick McNealy, David Boote, Viraat Badhwar (coming off his course record 11-under par 59 at Stanford the previous week) and Jim Liu complete the team.

Final Results - by gostanford.com
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Maverick McNealy was 1-over in his final round of the United States Collegiate Championship on Sunday, pacing Stanford to a 13th-place finish. 

Final team standings are shown below - click to enlarge:
Final Team Standings

Stanford (283-293-300) was 12-over as a team overall after entering Sunday’s round at even-par. The men’s golf team looks to regroup and rebound at the Gifford Collegiate (Nov. 3-4) held at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Calif.

Texas (-21) outlasted Virginia (-20) for the team title on The Golf Club of Georgia’s par-72 layout.

“We struggled all the way around today after a slow start on the first few holes,” said Conrad Ray, Stanford’s Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf. “We have a young team this season, and with that typically comes more ups and downs. It was a great learning experience the last few days for us, and we will be a better team when we tee it up at CordeValle.”

McNealy (66-74-73) was the team’s highest individual finisher, tying for 13th at 3-under. McNealy was joined in the top-25 by Viraat Badhwar (73-70-74), who was 25th at 1-over.

Franklin Huang (73-74-75) tied for 54th, David Boote (71-75-80) tied for 65th and Jim Liu (79-77-78) tied for 76th.


Final round scorecards can be found below - click to enlarge:
Final round scorecards - click to enlarge
Second Round Results
Stanford struggled in round  two with a team total of 5 over 293 which was only the day's 12th best in the field of 15, leaving the team tied for 7th place but still 11 strokes behind the leader Texas.  The field is bunched tightly at the top so a good third round can change final results significantly.

Viraat Badhwar (73-70 143 T19) led the way with a 2-under 70 and the four other Stanford players all were over par.  Maverick (66-74 140 T7) and freshman Franklin Huang (73-74 147 T42) had 74s, David Boote (71-75 146 T37) a 75 and Jim Liu (79-77 156 T76) continue to struggle with a 77.

Time to go low in the final round.  2nd round scorecards are shown below:
Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge
First Round Results
After the first round Stanford is in 4th position with a 4-under par 284 total, 11 strokes behind Virginia which was led by Denny McCarthy's blazing 63.  Maverick continued his strong play with an opening 66 to tie for 2nd, David was 1 under at 71, Viraat and Franklin carded 73s and Jim had a 79.  

Maverick's great round included 6 birdies and no bogies.  Franklin had a solid start to his college career with a 1 under front nine and a final hole birdie for his 1-over total.  First round scorecards are shown below:
First round scorecards - click to enlarge

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Stanford competes in the Nike Invitational at famed Colonial CC in Ft. Worth, Texas

Stanford five and 12 teams competing at Colonial CC
Nike sponsored the inaugural Swoosh Invitational at famed "Hogan's Alley" Colonial CC in Ft. Worth, Texas, longtime home course of Ben Hogan and a regular PGA tour stop for many years.  A strong field of 10 teams is shown above.

Two Stanford players are competing for the first time this season, junior David Boote (back from his worldwide travels to compete in the World Amateur Team Championships in Japan and in a European Tour event in Wales) and freshman Bradley Knox.  Rounding out the team are Maverick McNealy, ranked #1 in collegiate golf, Jim Liu and Viraat Badhwar.

Final Results:
The Cardinal moved up 3 places to finish 2nd, 6 strokes behind Oregon, with a solid final round of 3-over par 283 led by a 3rd place finisher Maverick McNealy (71-66-69 206 4-under).  Maverick finished 4 strokes behind Thomas Lim of Oregon, and 2 strokes behind Cheng-Tsung Pan of Washington.  Congrats to Maverick for his outstanding season start with two wins and this top 3 finish.  Stanford had the tournament's lowest round (2nd round 281) and tied for 2nd with its final round 283 total.

The Pac-12 garnered 4 of the top 6 spots in the tournament.  Team and top 5 individual scoring for the first 7 teams is shown below --- click to enlarge.


David Boote tied for 9th (72-71-72 215), Viraat Badhwar tied for 11th (74-72-71 217), Jim Liu tied for 29th (77-72-73 222) and freshman Bradley Knox finished strongly in his first collegiate event to tie for 34th (76-76-72 223).  Final round scorecards are included below.



Next up for the Cardinal is a trip to Georgia to play the US Intercollegiate October 17-19 against another strong field.

Rounds 1 & 2 Results:
Stanford sits in 5th place after the first two rounds, but only 6 strokes behind leading Oregon following a strong 2nd round, 1-over par 281 total, which tied the low round thus far.

McNealy leads the way in 3rd overall on rounds of 71-66 (3-under), Boote is tied for 10th with 72-71, Badhwar tied for 19th at 74-72, Liu tied for 29th at 77-72 and Knox tied for 48th at 76-76.

The top 5 teams and 2nd round scorecards are shown below - click to enlarge.
Round 2 scorecards and top 5 teams
The first round scorecards are shown below:
Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge