Stories of the Season

Yun, Chung & Rodgers compete in inaugural Patriot All-American

2011-12-29T06:08:00.000-08:00

Andrew Yun, David Chung and Patrick Rodgers are among the top collegiate golfers invited to compete in the inaugural Patriot All-American Invitational being held at the Wigwam Golf Course in Litchfield Park, Arizona. The field includes 84 top collegiate golfers including 21 of the top 100 amateurs in the world. Participants were all past All-Americans in college or the AJGA. There is Live Scoring available for the event through the main website --- http://patriotallamerica.com/.

FINAL ROUND RESULTS: Andrew Yun led the way finishing tied for 7th with a 2-under 211 total on rounds of 69-75-67. Andrew finished 12 shots behind Cory Whitsett and 9 behind Bobby Wyatt. Patrick Rodgers finished tied for 10th one behind Andrew at 212 with his rounds of 73-69-70 and David Chung tied for 23rd at 2-over 215 on rounds of 72-70-73.

Scorecards of all rounds for the three Cardinal All-Americans are included below - click on the images to enlarge.

Andrew Yun's 3 rounds - click to enlarge

Patrick Rodgers' 3 rounds

David Chung's 3 rounds

ROUND TWO RESULTS: David Chung (72-70 Even) and Patrick Rodgers (72-69) are tied for 15th while Andrew Yun slipped to a tie for 28th after rounds of 69-75. Cory Whitsett leads at 9-under par after rounds of 69-64.

ROUND ONE RESULTS: Andrew Yun is tied for 3rd after his first round 69 while David Chung is tied for 19th with his 72 and Patrick Rodgers is tied for 25th at 73. Brent Koepka's 4-under 67 gives him the first round lead.

Cardinal signs Boote and Francks to National Letters of Intent

2011-11-11T14:53:00.001-08:00

STANFORD, Calif. - The Knowles Family Director ofMen's Golf, Conrad Ray, has announced high school senior DominickFrancks and International Student David Boote have signed national letters ofintent to attend Stanford University next fall.

Francks, who is from Olympia, Washington and attends OlympiaHigh School has collected many golfing accolades on a regional and nationalstage.

In 2010 the Washington State Golf Association named Dominick JuniorBoy’s “Player of the Year” after he won both the Junior State Championship andthe Junior Pacific Northwest Amateur.

In 2011, he retained his “Player of theYear” status with the Washington Junior Golf Association, added a MVP honorrepresenting Washington at the Junior America’s Cup and claimed the WIAA 4AState High School Golf Championship Title.

Notable results on the nationalgolfing scene in 2011 included tied 3^rd place in the Callaway JuniorWorld Championship, 5^th in the Junior America’s Cup and tied 2^ndplace in the Hudson Junior Invitational. Francks maintains a USGA Handicap of+2.5 and a Stroke average of 72.

He has also played 3 years of VarsityBasketball and is a member of the Olympia High School Sports Round Table. Dominick stands 6'3" and weighs 195 lbs.

Hisfields of academic interest are currently Biology and Philosophy.
Dominick commits to Stanford | Junior World 3rd Place Finish | Washington State High School Champion | 2010 PNGA junior champion | You Tube Swing Video.

click to enlarge

Boote hails from Surrey, England and attends Epsom Collegewhere he is studying for A-Levels in Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Economics andCritical Thinking. Despite residing in the suburbs of London in England, Davidis very proud of his Welsh heritage and is their 2011 National Junior Champion.

Success representing Wales at Junior level in European International eventsalong with solid play at the Men’s Home Internationals at County Sligo,Ireland, this summer has elevated David’s standing to being a key member of theWelsh National Men’s Amateur Squad.

Perhaps his greatest 2011 recognition camewhen David captained Great Britain and Ireland Juniors in the Jaques LegliseTrophy and helped his team earn victory over a strong Continent of Europe teamin Neguri, Spain.

Individually in 2011, David won the United Kingdom Nick FaldoSeries Championship. Through numerous wins and top finishes in Nationalcometitions over the course of several years, David earned selectionopportunities to competed twice on American soil at the Junior Jones Cup andthe Junior Players where he finished respectably in 9^th and 35^thspots respectively.

Outside of golf, David plays the lead baritone saxophone forhis school band ensemble, acts in his school dramatics society and hasrepresented Epsom College in Rugby and Field Hockey. David's golf handicap is +2.1 and he stands 5'10" and weighs 155 lbs.
David Spearheads Wales Challenge | David wins the Faldo Series | David Captains GB & I team vs Continent of Europe | Photos and Story of GB & I win in Spain | Surrey County Golf Story of Signing.

David signs LOI - click to enlarge

click to enlarge

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/11/10/1870823/south-sound-golfer-commits-to.html

Gifford Collegiate at CordeValle is underway in San Martin, CA

2011-10-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Stanford is competing in the unique Gifford Collegiate tournament held at highly regarded CordeValle GC in nearby San Martin, CA, about 45 minutes from the Stanford campus. CordeValle is a top venue having recently hosted the PGA Tour's Fry's Open.

Final Results:
The third and final round ended with Stanford in 6th place after an 11-over par 366 total counting the low five scores out of six players competing in this unique event. The Cardinal finished 50 shots behind the winning USC team and 46 behind 2nd place UCLA.

Freshman Patrick Rodgers led the way with a 2-over total of 215 (70-73-72 T10), followed by Cameron Wilson at 216 (75-72-69 T13), Andrew Yun at 222 (73-74-75 T25), David Chung at 223 (74-75-74 T30), Shane Lebow with 231 (79-76-76 T59) and Marcel Puyat at 236 (80-79-77 67th). The overall individual winner was Steve Lim of USC with an 11-under 202 total.

Playing as individuals, Steven Kearney finished at 223 (75-77-71 T30) while Andre DeDecker ended with a 231 total (78-79-74 T59). The fall tournament season has ended with Stanford returning to action on the Big Island of Hawaii Feb 1-3.

Prior round results, tournament background and practice round videos can be found below. Final round scorecards can be found immediately below --- click to enlarge:

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

Second Round Results:
The second round ended with Stanford moving up one spot to 7th with its 15-over par 370 total. The team is 44 shots behind the leading USC team, 31 behind UCLA and 19 behind 3rd place Virginia. The lead individuals, Cantlay of UCLA and Lim of USC are tied with 9-under par totals of 133.

The Cardinal is led by Patrick Rodgers at 143 (70-73 T8), followed by Andrew Yun (73-74 T27) and Cameron Wilson (75-72 T27) at 147, David Chung at 149 (74-75 T37), Shane Lebow at 155 (79-76 T62) and Marcel Puyat's 159 (80-79 69th). Playing as individuals, Steven Kearney is at 152 (75-77 T47) and Andre DeDecker at 157 (78-79 T64).

Second round scorecards of the six team players are below (click to enlarge):

2nd round scorecards - click to enlarge

First Round Results:
It was a tough first round for the 2nd ranked Cardinal team as they ended in 8th place a full 26 shots behind leading USC. On a day when scoring was low, it took a sensational comeback by freshman Patrick Rodgers to achieve his 1-under par total of 70 (T9) which was the team's only sub-par score. Patrick was 5-over on his first 8 holes, starting on the back nine, and he then reeled off 6 birdies on his next 10 holes, resulting in a 31 on his back nine.

Andrew Yun was next with a 73 followed by David Chung's 74, Cameron Wilson's 75, Shane Lebow's 79 and Marcel Puyat's 80. Playing as individuals Steven Kearney had a 75 and Andre DeDecker had a 78. The individual leader was UCLA's Patrick Cantlay's 63 while USC had 3 players with rounds of 66, 68 and 68.

The individual scorecards are show below (click on image to enlarge):

First round scorecards - click to enlarge

Tournament Background & Video:
Each team competes with 6 players, not the typical 5 players, with the low 5 scores counting each day. In addition, the Cardinal bring 2 individual competitors. Read Coach Phil Rowe's excellent summary of the qualifying for this CordeValle tourney in the coach's blog --- http://stanfordmensgolf.blogspot.com/2011/10/team-heading-to-cordevalle.html. Stanford finished 2nd to UCLA in the 2010 event at CordeValle.

The tournament includes many of the nation's top teams (by GolfWeek) including #2 Oregon, #3 Stanford, #5 Washington and #11 UCLA, plus #32 USC, Arizona, Central Carolina, Long Beach State, Northwestern, Virginia and Washington State.

Stanford's line-up includes Patrick Rodgers, Andrew Yun, Cameron Wilson, David Chung, Shane Lebow and Marcel Puyat and Steven Kearney and Andre DeDecker will compete as individuals. Stanford is paired with Virginia in the first round. Short practice round videos of each player are included below -- each video is very short and will automatically move to the next video.

Isleworth Collegiate Results in Windermere, Florida

2011-10-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

Stanford's third tournament of the season is being played in Windermere, Florida, at the highly rated Arnold Palmer-designed Isleworth GC, home to many touring pros. The tournament has become one of the premiere events always bringing together many of the nation's top teams from around the country. This year's event is no exception with Texas (#1), Stanford (#2), Alabama (#5), California (#7), North Florida (#12), Oklahoma State (#13), UCF (#15) and LSU (#18) competing along with Florida, TCU and Vanderbilt. Team rankings shown are by Golfweek. | Live scoring is being provided by GolfStat. | Pre-tourney videos by Coach Phil Rowe - see videos below. Thanks to Elise Chung for providing excellent photos of the event (see sample below) --- https://picasaweb.google.com/cechung/Isleworth2011?feat=email.

Team photo by Elise Chung - click to enlarge

Final Results - Stanford finished a disappointing 7th a full 45 shots behind the hot Texas team despite having three individuals finishing in the top 10. Nine strokes separated the 2nd thru 7th teams. The 3rd and final round total of 301 was the worst of the three days of play (291-299-301) as the Cardinal had no players breaking par.

Patrick Rodgers finished 4th overall (70-72-74 216), Andrew Yun finished tied for 6th (69-73-76 218), Cameron Wilson was tied for 10th (73-75-72), David Chung tied for 59th (79-79-79) and Steven Kearney tied for 68th (81-82-79). The runaway individual winner was Jordan Spieth of Texas with an 11-under par 205 total. The final tournament of the fall season starts Oct 31 at Cordevalle GC near Stanford, a course that recently hosted a PGA tour event.

The final round scorecards can be found below:

3rd round scorecards - click to enlarge

Round Two Results - Stanford stands in 4th place after two rounds after an 11-over par 299, leaving the team 16 shots behind Texas, 6 behind LSU and 3 behind North Florida. Scores were higher in the 2nd round, likely due to windy conditions. Andrew Yun (69-73) and Patrick Rodgers (70-72) are tied for 2nd individually at 2-under par, 4 shots behind Jordan Spieth (65-73) of Texas.

The team leaders are followed by Cameron Wilson (73-75), David Chung (79-79) and Steven Kearney (81-82). Round two scorecards are included below:

2nd round scorecards - click to enlarge

Round One Results - Stanford finished tied with Alabama for 3rd after the first round, 13 strokes behind Texas and 4 behind North Florida. The Cardinal was led by Andrew Yun with a 3-under par 69, followed by Patrick Rodgers at 70, Cameron Wilson with 73, David Chung with 79 and Steven Kearney with 81.

Patrick is tied for 2nd individually 4 shots behind Texas' Jordan Spieth, while Patrick is tied for 5th. Andrew's round was marked by a sterling 5-under par back nine 31 while Patrick's steady round included 3 birdies and a lone bogie.

Round one scorecards are included below:

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

Practice round videos below

Stanford finishes 3rd at The Prestige at PGA West in La Quinta, CA

2011-10-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

FINAL ROUND RESULTS:
Stanford finished 3rd, 8 strokes behind Oregon and 6 behind Washington in a low-scoring shootout in the Palm Spring area desert. Played at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West, the Prestige had the nation's top two teams facing off in the Cardinal and Oregon.

3rd Place Award - Click to enlarge

A solid final round 10 under par 278, the day's 3rd best round, was not enough to catch Oregon which had built a 10 stroke lead after the second round.

In the final round, Patrick Rodgers and David Chung led the way with matching 68s, Steven Kearney had a 70, Andrew Yun a 72 and Cameron Wilson a 74. Three round totals were Rodgers 209 (69-72-68 T10), Yun 210 (66-72-72 T14), Cameron Wilson 213 (72-67-74 T24), Steven Kearney 214 (73-71-70 T26) and David Chung 217 (73-76-68 T39).

Playing as individuals, Marcel Puyat, from nearby Indio, had a fine tournament with rounds of 71-71-69 for a 211 total to finish T17 and Andre DeDecker had a 225 total on rounds of 77-73-75 to finish T67.

Head coach Conrad Ray had this to say following the event:

"I thought we played pretty well," said Ray. "Oregon has a really good team this year as does Washington and it just wasn't our week this week. We had some bright spots - it was nice to see David Chung put up a good round today and Patrick Rodgers had another top-10."

After freshman Marcel Puyat's first tournament:

"We have high hopes for Marcel," said Ray. "He's hitting it well and he's got a good short game that he really works at. I see nothing but upside for Marcel; he's going to help us before the season's out. We have a bunch of guys who can play and we have a deep team this year and that's always a good thing in college golf."

Here are final round scorecards for the team players followed by Marcel Puyat's 3 round scorecards:

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

Marcel Puyat's 3 round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Stanford shot a steady second round total of 282 (6-under par) but found itself 10 shots behind as it was passed by three teams going very low, led by Oregon's 15-under par total of 273. Scoring conditions allowed Oregon, Washington and San Diego State to each post 4 under par rounds.

The Cardinal was led in the second round by Cameron Wilson's 5-under 67 (72-67), followed by Steven Kearney's 71 (73-71), 72s from Andrew Yun (66-72) and Patrick Rodgers (69-72) and a 76 from David Chung (73-76). Cameron's round included 7 birdies. Playing as individuals, Marcel Puyat again played well with a 71 (71-71) and Andre DeDecker had a 73 (77-73).

Don't miss the dozens of photos on Facebook. Scorecards from team players are shown below:

2nd round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 1 RESULTS:
La Quinta, Calif - Stanford shot an opening round 280 in the opening round at The Prestige at PGA West held at the Greg Norman Course. Stanford got off to a slow start but was able to move up the leaderboard on the back nine.

The Cardinal, ranked first in the country by Golfweek, is one stroke behind No. 2 Oregon for the team lead.

Defending champion Andrew Yun fired a 66 (-6), good for a share of first place with Arizona State's Spencer Fletcher, after making five birdies on the back nine. Patrick Rodgers had a 69 after going three-under on the back nine and is tied for eighth place, three strokes back.

Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf Conrad Ray was impressed by Yun's play.

"Andrew had a stellar back nine and looked great all the way around," he said. "His game is solid and he's feeling really good about how he's playing this year."

Cameron Wilson (72), David Chung (73) and Steve Kearney (73) carded solid rounds for the Cardinal.

"I feel pretty good about how we played," said Ray. "Steve got off to a slow start and finished strong and everyone contributed. We have some work left and we're going to have to play well the rest of the tournament."

Freshman Marcel Puyat had a fine 71 and Andre DeDecker a 77 while competing as individuals. GoStanford.com story.

First round scorecards can be found below (click to enlarge):

Round 1 scorecards for the team players - click to enlarge

Perspective on Stanford's win at Olympia Fields

2011-09-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last week was a special one for the Stanford men's golf team which had a dominating win by 16-strokes on the demanding Olympia Fields CC against an elite field that included the #1, #4, #6, #8 and #12 teams in the nation. Some perspective on just how special last week was for Stanford:

It was the Cardinal's first team win since Feb 2010.
Stanford had the #1, #3 and #4 finishers individually, perhaps the best top 3 finishes by any team in years. Closest to that were #4, #5 and #6 finishes by Stanford in the May 2010 regional at Notre Dame.
Stanford led all 3 rounds and won by 16 shots, a larger margin than any in recent memory.
Stanford had 5 rounds in the 60s on a very tough course, next best team had 2 rounds in the 60s.
Stanford had the day's low individual round on two of the three days, and was 1 stroke behind on the other day.
Patrick Rodgers' win in his first event was the first such win by a freshman since Tiger Woods in 1995.
Patrick Rodgers was named national player of the week by Golf Week and Stanford athlete of the week for all sports, the latter a first for a golfer since Sihwan Kim was honored June 2008.
The lineup included two freshman, one sophomore and two juniors.
Stanford was playing without 2-time All-American David Chung.

This is only one event and a long road lies ahead to where this team will hope to end up but it will surely be fun to watch this year's crop of players develop.

Interview with Coach Ray after the win

Interview with Coach Ray after day 2 with Cardinal leading by 11

Stanford dominates at famed Olympia Fields near Chicago against an elite field

2011-09-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

Patrick Rodgers leads Stanford to a dominating win at Olympia Fields Photo from Golf Week

The 2011-12 tournament season started at the famed North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club outside Chicago and Stanford would dominate the strong field with a 16 stroke win. Olympia Fields North hosted the 2003 US Open plus three other majors and the event features a strong field --- the Cardinal have been picked at #20 in pre-season rankings by Golf Week. Hosted by Illinois, the field is very strong including #1 Oklahoma St., #4 Alabama, #6 Florida, defending champ #8 Augusta St., #12 Duke, #13 Texas and #23 Ohio St. in the 15-team field. Live scoring is provided by Golf Stat.

Stanford fielded a young team led by returning junior 1st team All-American Andrew Yun, junior Steven Kearney, sophomore Cameron Wilson and two freshman, high-touted Walker Cupper Patrick Rodgers and Patrick Grimes who hails from Atherton next door to Stanford. All-American senior David Chung did not qualify for this event but no doubt will be an added force as the season progresses. Results are posted in reverse order, most recent at the top.

FINAL ROUND RESULTS - Playing in rainy final round conditions, the Cardinal expanded their 2nd round lead from 11 shots to a final 16-stroke margin to dominate a field that included many of the nation's top players. The team win was Stanford's first since a Feb 2010 win in Hawaii at the UH-Hilo Invitational.

The team was led by freshman Patrick Rodgers who posted a 3-shot individual win in his first collegiate event firing a 4-under total of 206 on rounds of 68-70-68. Patrick's final round gem was the low round of the day and featured a bogey-free scorecard with two birdies on the back nine. The individual win was the first by a Cardinal since Andrew Yun's win at the Prestige at PGA West in October of 2010. It also was the first time a Stanford freshman won in his first tournament since Tiger Woods did so in 1995.

Andrew Yun finished 3rd individually (his 9th top 5 career finish) with a 211 total and rounds of 66-71-74 while 2nd round leader Cameron Wilson finished 4th individually (his best career finish topping a 5th place finish last season) with a 212 total on rounds of 69-67-76. Steven Kearney finished with a 222 total on rounds of 74-76-72 and freshman Patrick Grimes had a 225 total and rounds of 75-74-76. The 1-3-4 finish was easily the best individual result for 3 players in recent memory, the closest to this being the 4-5-6 finish in the 2010 regional at Notre Dame.

Here's a Golf Week story about the Stanford win || Here's a GoStanford.com story about the win.

In the latter story Coach Conrad Ray said "we could sense that Patrick was motivated to play well and feeling good about his game. He's really excited and he's looking forward to getting to school and settling down a bit after a busy summer."

Images below include the top 5 team and individual scores, a photo of the winning scoresheet, and scorecards of the 3rd round and of Patrick Rodgers' 3 rounds. As with all images click on image to enlarge.

Top 5 team and individual scores - click to enlarge

Photo of winning scoresheet - click to enlarge

Patrick Rodgers' 3 scorecards - click to enlarge

3rd round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 2 RESULTS - The Cardinal extended its lead to 11 shots over #1 ranked Oklahoma St. after the day's low of 282 total. Scores were higher as the players faced difficult pin positions and windy weather. Stanford has the only 3 individuals under par, led by Cameron Wilson at 4-under (69-67 136). Cameron is followed by Andrew Yun at 137 (66-71), Patrick Rodgers at 138 (68-70), Patrick Grimes at 149 (75-74) and Steven Kearney 150 (74-76).

Cameron's great round featured 5 birdies including 3 on the back nine while Rodgers' solid round included only 1 bogey and 1 birdie. Cameron's birdied the par-4 11th a day after making bogey there and he sunk a 45-foot putt on the 16th hole for another birdie en route to the day's 2nd low round.

"Cameron's been hitting it pretty well", said Coach Conrad Ray. "Yun and Rodgers" played solid. Kearney and Grimes are battling,Grimes made a couple of big par putts on 17 and 18 to help our fourth score." See the scorecards below -- click to enlarge.

2nd round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 1 RESULTS - Stanford sits in first place with a 5-stroke lead over Oklahoma St. after a solid first round 277, 3-under the par 70. Andrew Yun is in 1st individually with a 66 followed by Patrick Rodgers 68, Cameron Wilson 69, Steven Kearney 74 and Patrick Grimes 75. The scorecards for round one are shown below. Andrew's sterling round featured five birdies and only 1 bogie on the tough layout, Cameron's round also included 5 birdies while Rodgers started his collegiate career with a strong round highlighted by four straight birdies leading to his back nine 32.

Head Coach Conrad Ray said "we played well today, stayed on the fairways and had some good looks. All our guys played great. We had high expectations coming in and we need to continue to play at this level, there are a lot of really good teams behind us."

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

Patrick Rodgers named to the 2011 Walker Cup team

2011-08-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

Patrick's Porter Cup trophy

Stanford's incoming freshman Patrick Rodgers was named to the 2011 Walker Cup team. The 2011 event will be held at Royal Aberdeen GC in Scotland. Patrick, a native of Avon, Indiana, has had a brilliant summer following an outstanding junior golf career. The backgrounder below by the USGA provides an excellent summary of Patrick's recent successes on the golf course.

Patrick becomes only the 9th Stanford University golfer to be named to a Walker Cup team, joining Charlie Seaver, Lawson Little, Mike Peck, Doug Clarke, Notah Begay, Tiger Woods, Joel Kribel and Phil Rowe (current Ass't Coach named to the Great Britain team).

First team All-American and rising junior Andrew Yun remains in the running for a Walker Cup spot this year.

The USGA's official Walker Cup website. The USGA website includes the following backgrounder on Patrick:

Patrick Rodgers, 18, Avon, Ind.

It has been a strong 2011 season for the incoming Stanford University freshman. Since graduating from high school in the spring, he has posted a slew of top-five finishes, highlighted by his come-from-behind victory at the Porter Cup at the end of July at Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, N.Y. Rodgers posted rounds of 68-63-69-68 and then rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to edge Wesley Bryan for the title.

Rodgers also had runner-up finishes at the Players Amateur, Junior Invitational and Terra Cotta Invitational. He added a fourth-place finish in the Northeast Amateur and finished third at the Jones Cup Invitational. In early August, he finished second in the 72-hole stroke-play portion of the 109th Western Amateur at North Shore C.C. in suburban Chicago, but lost in the first round of the match-play portion of the competition to his future Stanford teammate, Andrew Yun, in 21 holes.

Rodgers won the Indiana State High School Championship as a junior in 2010 and is a two-time HP Scholastic All-American. He was named a First-Team Rolex Junior All-American in 2009 and 2010 by the American Junior Golf Association and was Honorable Mention in 2008. Rodgers’ AJGA résumé includes nine top-10 finishes and a win at the SAP Junior Open in 2009. He has played in three USGA championships, advancing to the round of 16 in the 2009 U.S. Junior Amateur, the round of 32 in the 2008 U.S. Junior and qualifying for the 2010 U.S. Amateur.

Academics are important to Rodgers, who ranked third in his class at Avon High School out of 582 students. He has written blogs about his experiences in junior golf for Golfweek magazine. See the full news release from the USGA website.

Walker Cup Trophy

Freshman Patrick Rodgers wins Porter Cup in a playoff!

2011-07-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

Courtesy PGA of America - click to enlarge

Incoming freshman Patrick Rodgers closed with a brilliant 31 final nine holes to win the prestigious Porter Cup in a playoff. Patrick eagled both the par 5 11th and the par 5 13th, then birdied 16 to close the gap on Wesley Bryan who had been cruising with a large lead after 10 holes. A birdie 2 on the first playoff hole capped off the stunning victory. Patrick had rounds of 68-63-69-68 for a 12-under par total of 268. He had only 5 bogies over the 4 rounds offset by 14 birdies and 2 eagles.

Returning junior Andrew Yun finished tied for 6th on rounds of 67-69-68-67, sophomore to be Cameron Wilson finished tied for 11th with 72-66-64-70 272 and defending champion senior David Chung tied for 72nd with rounds of 72-72-69-78.

Scorecards of each round - click to enlarge

The tournament website can be found here --- http://www.portercup.com/ and an article by Golf Week online is shown below:

LEWISTON, N.Y. - Patrick Rodgers knows what it takes to contend in major amateur tournaments. Actually breaking through to win was another matter.

Until Saturday.

Rodgers, 19, of Avon, Ind., made an improbable comeback in the 53rd Porter Cup, erasing a seven-shot deficit with eight holes to play and defeating Wesley Bryan on the first playoff hole.

“It was weird,” said Rodgers, a Stanford freshman, who shot 12-under 268 at Niagara Falls Country Club. “I was so far out of it with eight holes to play that I didn’t even really think about winning until it was over. I just kept playing and grinding trying to get myself back in it.”

Rodgers eagled both par 5s on the back nine, the 11th and the 13th, then birdied the par-3 16th en route to a final-round 68. Meanwhile, Bryan, a South Carolina senior from Chapin, S.C., struggled to find the clubhouse, bogeying three of his final six holes to shoot 4-under 66.

With momentum having changed sides over those final few holes, the playoff was predictable: After Bryan dumped his tee shot into a greenside bunker at the 189-yard par-3 18th, Rodgers hit to within 15 feet.

“I rolled it in and just went bonkers after that,” Rodgers said.

Bryan had played flawlessly early, making the turn in 6-under 29 and then adding birdie at the 11th to go to 7 under for the round.

But Rodgers, playing in the final group with Bryan and third-round leader Paul Haley (70-269, T-3), a recent Georgia Tech graduate, made his move.

At the par-5 11th, with 232 into the green in two, Rodgers hit it to within a foot for a tap-in eagle. Meanwhile, Bryan, who had a 5-footer for eagle, missed.

At the 13th, Rodgers gambled off the tee and left himself a 285-yard second shot, which he hit over trees to 10 feet, from where he made another eagle. Bryan three-putted for bogey, cutting his lead to three and losing all momentum. From there, Rodgers kept up the pressure, right through the playoff hole.

Next up for Rodgers: This week’s Western Amateur and then the U.S. Amateur later in August.

He’s also got his eye on the season’s big prize in amateur golf: a berth on the U.S. Walker Cup team that will play the top amateurs from Great Britain and Ireland on Sept. 10-11 at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland.

“That was the reason for me to switch to full-time amateur golf this summer, although I could have played a few more junior events,” he said. “I know that I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I know I learned a lot from this week that I can use.”

After so many top finishes in big events this year -- runners-up at The Players Amateur and the Terra Cotta Invitational, and third places at the Azalea Invitational and Jones Cup -- Rodgers’ play at the Porter Cup signals a pivotal moment in his development as a top amateur.

“This was so important for me,” Rodgers said. “I kind of got a taste of being in contention this summer, but I haven’t been able to finish it off. I just kept trying to learn from all those weeks.”

Consider the lesson learned.

- D.J. Piehowski contributed

Andrew Yun and Steve Ziegler garner postseason honors

2011-07-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

Stanford junior to be Andrew Yun was recently named to the 2011 All-Nicklaus team by the Golf Coaches of America. Here is the announcement by the GCA on their website:

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – The 24 honorees for the 2011 All-Nicklaus Team have been announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Players from Division I, II, III, NAIA and NJCAA were recognized for their outstanding play during the past collegiate season.

The All-Nicklaus Team was created in 2008, and is not only named for history’s greatest player but also a long-time supporter of collegiate and amateur golf. Jack Nicklaus, a Big Ten and NCAA Champion at The Ohio State University, helped inspire and create the Jack Nicklaus Award in 1988. The Nicklaus Award is annually given to the top collegiate men’s golfer in Division I, II, III, the NAIA and the NJCAA.

The All-Nicklaus team is comprised of Cyril Bouniol and Alex Carpenter of Abilene Christian, UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay, Bud Cauley of Alabama, Cumberlands Pierre Carlsson, Edward Delashmutt of Mesa CC, Meridian CC’s Brandt Garon, Luke Guthrie of Illinois, Central Alabama’s Paul Harris, John Jackson of Cal State Monterey Bay, Texas Lutheran’s Ryan Kiel, Jimmy Kozikowski of South Mountain, Claremont McKenna’s Tain Lee, Justin Lower of Malone, Centre College’s Chris Morris, John Peterson of LSU, Augusta State’s Patrick Reed, Kyle Souza of Chico State, Oklahoma Christian’s Oscar Stark, Oklahoma State’s Kevin Tway and Peter Uihlein, Florida’s Bank Vongvanij, James White of Georgia Tech and Stanford’s Andrew Yun.

Steve Ziegler, recent graduate and captain of the 2010-11 team was also honored as one of 138 Division I golfers as a 2011 Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-American Scholar for his excellent golf combined with high academic achievement.

The announcement by the GCA on their website is shown below:

NORMAN, Okla. – Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars for Divisions I, II and the NAIA have been announced by the GCAA. A total of 138 players in Division I, 49 in Division II and three in NAIA earned the honor. Additionally, 20 honorees were added to the previously released Division III Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars. To be eligible for Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar status an individual must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least two full years at the collegiate level, participate in 70-percent of his team’s competitive rounds or compete in the NCAA Championships, have a stroke-average under 76.0 in Division I, 78.0 in Division II and NAIA and 79.0 in Division III, and maintain a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.2 in Division I, II and III and 3.5 in NAIA. A recipient must also be of high moral character and be in good standing at his college or university.

Postseason honors for 4 men's team student-athletes

2011-06-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

On June 9, the Stanford Athletic Department announced its annual athletic awards for all sports and two men's Graham Brockington and Andrew Yun were honored. Graham received the Warrior Award and Andrew Yun was one of four men to be honored with the Block "S" Outstanding Male Sophomore Award. On June 6, Graham, Andrew along with David Chung and Steve Ziegler were recognized by the Pac 10 for outstanding academic achievement.

WARRIOR AWARD
Administered by the Director of Sports Performance, this award honors the student-athlete who not only displays maximum effort on and off the field of competition, but also brings out the best in his/her teammates through positive attitude, relentless work ethic and consistent commitment to performance enhancement. The award is given in memory of Arthur F. Dauer '59.

Graham Brockington
GOLF - ECONOMICS MAJOR
"Ever since stepping foot on The Farm, Graham has been relentless with improving his performance on the golf course. A day seldom goes by where he does not challenge his teammates, and a day never passes where he doesn't push himself in the weight room. His perseverance and dedication to fitness and practice on the course has paid off, allowing Graham to finish playing some of the best golf of his career."- Jason Quan, Sports Performance Coach

BLOCK "S" OUTSTANDING MALE SOPHOMORE AWARD
Ryan Mango
WRESTLING - HUMAN BIOLOGY MAJOR
Became Stanford's 15th All-American with a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, accomplishing the feat with a torn LCL ... helped lead Stanford to a program-best 11th-place finish at NCAA Championships ... ranked second on the team with 26 wins, including a 11-1 dual record ... second on the team with five pins ... finished fourth at the Pac-10 Championships at 125 pounds ... recorded a 14-match winning streak, tied for the 10th best stretch in school history ... won the 125-pound title at the Fullerton Open ... finished fourth at the Midland Championships in Chicago.
Stephen Piscotty
BASEBALL - UNDECLARED MAJOR
All-Pac-10 First Team selection ... Stanford's leader in batting average (.370) and multi-hit games (26) ... ranked third in the Pac-10 in batting average ... one of two Cardinal players to appear in every game, starting each contest at third base.
Shayne Skov
FOOTBALL - UNDECLARED MAJOR
Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 selection ... led team with 84 total tackles, including 50 solo stops ... also had 7.5 sacks among his 10.5 tackles-for-loss ... ranked eighth in the Pac- 10 in tackles per game (7.64) ... finished with 12 tackles, 3.0 sacks and one pass breakup in a stellar Orange Bowl effort against Virginia Tech ... totaled 46 tackles over the last six games of the season in which Stanford allowed just 56 points while pitching two shutouts ... finished with a season-high 13 tackles against USC, including one for loss.
Andrew Yun
GOLF - UNDECLARED MAJOR
PING First Team All-American ... First Team All-Pac-10 selection ... Hogan Award semifinalist ... Stanford's top finisher in nine of 11 events ... recorded seven top-5 finishes ... won his first collegiate title at The Prestige at PGA West.

On June 6, it was announced that four members of Stanford's men's golf team earned spots on the Pac-10 Conference's All-Academic team, led by senior Graham Brockington, who merited first team honors.

Brockington, who carries a 3.46 cumulative grade point average as a economics major, joins Thomas Buran (Arizona State), Jack Dukeminier (Oregon), Pedro Figueiredo (UCLA), Charlie Hughes (Washington) and Kevin Spooner (Washington) on the first team.

Senior Steve Ziegler, junior David Chung and sophomore Andrew Yun were honorable mention selections.

To be eligible for selection to the academic team, a student-athlete must have a minumum 3.0 overall grade point average and be either a starter or significant contributor on his/her team.

Andrew Yun named 1st team All-American

2011-06-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Andrew Yun at the 2011 Pac 2010 Championship where he finished 4th

Sophomore standout Andrew Yun was named a First-Team All-American by the Golf Coaches of America after a superb season in which he had 1 win and 7 top 5 finishes in his 11 tournaments. His stroke average of 70.9 was 2.5 shots lower than the next lowest on Stanford's team.

Congratulations to Andrew for one of the strongest seasons ever by a Stanford golfer!

The following announcement can be found on the link below:

STILLWATER, Okla. – PING First-Team All-America honorees for Division I have been announced by the GCAA following the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championships.

First-Team All-Americans included Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, Alabama’s Bud Cauley, Luke Guthrie of Illinois, Oklahoma State’s Morgan Hoffmann, Kevin Tway and Peter Uihlein, LSU’s John Peterson, Patrick Reed of Augusta State, Florida’s Bank Vongvanij, James White of Georgia Tech and Andrew Yun of Stanford.

Division I PING First-Team All-Americans

Patrick Cantlay, UCLA
Bud Cauley, Alabama
Luke Guthrie, Illinois
Morgan Hoffmann, Oklahoma State
John Peterson, LSU
Patrick Reed, Augusta State
Kevin Tway, Oklahoma State
Peter Uihlein, Oklahoma State
Bank Vongvanij, Florida
James White, Georgia Tech
Andrew Yun, Stanford

http://collegiategolf.com/news/division-i-ping-first-team-all-americans-announced-1540.html

Stanford finishes 6th and fails to advance at the NCAA Indiana Region

2011-05-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

FINAL RESULTS - Stanford just missed advancing to the NCAA Finals, finishing 6th, 4 shots out of the 5th spot needed to continue its season. It was a disappointing final event for the Cardinal team which found itself 28 shots behind the surging Michigan team that won the regional. Junior David Chung led the way tying for 11th at an even par 213 total.

Despite the disappointing final result, hats off to Andrew Yun for his outstanding season which surely will earn him All-American honors, to the steadily improving play of senior Graham Brockington and sophomore Steven Kearney and to the excellent leadership of captain Steve Ziegler.

Freshman Cameron Wilson had a very strong first season and shows great promise while junior David Chung provided excellent contributions and special drama for Cardinal fans with his Masters appearance. Senior Sihwan Kim's brilliant Stanford career was cut short due to a lingering back injury while Shane Lebow and Wilson Bowen showed encouraging signs of strong play this season. Andre De Decker, although not playing in a tournament this year, showed flashes of solid play in practice and can be a contributor next season.

In other regionals five Pac 10 teams advanced to the NCAA finals.

Stanford's final regional team leader board, player totals and final round scorecards is found below:

Final leaderboard - click to enlarge

Final Player Results - click to enlarge

Final round scorecards

ROUND 2 RESULTS - Stanford moves to 5th place after two rounds, led by junior David Chung, with only 5 teams advancing to the NCAA Finals. Looks to be a 4-team competition for the 4th and 5th spots as Stanford has a 6-stroke lead on Charlotte in 6th place. The overall team standings are below:

Round 2 Team Standings - click to enlarge

Round 2 Player Scores - click to enlarge

Round 2 Scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 1 RESULTS - Stanford ended in 4th place after the first round at the NCAA Indiana Regional played at Wolf Run Golf Club. Complete results can be found below showing all team scores, Stanford's player scoring and overall finish plus individual scorecards for each player. Five teams advance to the NCAA Finals to be held at the home course of top ranked Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma May 31-June 5.

Round 1 Player Scoring - click to enlarge

Round 1 Scorecards - click to enlarge

Round 1 Team Scoring - click to enlarge

Wolf Run Golf Club in Zionsville, Indiana

Competing for Stanford in the NCAA Midwest Region at the Wolf Run Golf Club in Zionsville, Indiana are Andrew Yun, David Chung, Steve Ziegler, Graham Brockington and Steven Kearney. Live scoring can be found at Golfstat.com. The low five teams out of the 13 competing teams advance. With national Golf Week rankings in parentheses, Stanford (21) is seeded #4 in this region behind Alabama (3), Illinois (11) and Iowa (18), followed by Tennessee (23), Wake Forest (26), Indiana (37), Florida State (41), Michigan (53), Memphis (63), Wichita St. (112), Missouri (120) and Sacred Heart (212).

The pre-event story below was posted on our gostanford.com website about Stanford earning the 4th seed in the Indiana Region --- http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/050911aab.html. The official NCAA website --- http://www.ncaa.com/news/golf-men/2011-05-09/regional-participants-announced --- shows all the seeded teams and their assigned locations. Here is the Indiana Regional information.

Eight Pac 10 teams earned bids with UCLA a #1 seed, USC a #3 seed, Stanford, Cal, ASU and Oregon #4 seeds, Washington a #6 seed and Arizona a #11 seed. Five teams in each of the six regions will advance to the finals to be held at the home course of top ranked Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma May 31-June 5.

May 9, 2011

STANFORD, Calif. - The NCAA Division I Men's Golf Committee has selected the teams and individuals to participate in the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships and Stanford has earned the fourth seed in the Indiana Region, to be held May 19-21 at the Wolf Run Golf Club in Zionsville, Ind.

It marks the second straight year the Cardinal has began its quest for a ninth national championship in the state of Indiana. Last season, Stanford captured the Central Regional held at the Warren Course in South Bend.

Joining Stanford in the Indiana Region (in order of seeding) are Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Indiana, Florida State, Michigan, Charlotte, Memphis, Wichita State, Missouri-Kansas City and Sacred Heart.

The low five teams and the low individual not on those teams from each regional will advance to the finals to be held at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Okla., May 31-June 5.

Stanford, coming off a fourth place finish at the Pac-10 Men's Championships, has won eight national titles, with the last title coming in 2007.

About the Wolf Run Golf Club
Wolf Run Golf Club --- http://wolfrungc.com/ --- was conceived in the early 1980's by the late Dr. Jack Leer, a local dentist and successful amateur golfer whose dream was to build a demanding, world-class golf club for serious golfers.

Dr. Leer wanted to craft a course employing the strength and beauty of the natural landscape while emulating the unique theories of 1920's design. To create his vision, Leer turned to Steve Smyers, an accomplished player and well-traveled student of the legendary architects and the golf courses that they created.

The course construction began in 1987 at the heavily wooded 218-acre site featuring meadowlands, a large bluff cutting across the entire tract, and Eagle Creek winding through the property. "We didn't move a lot of earth but built the course using the existing landscape," said Smyers. Dr. Leer desired his course to be so challenging and dramatic that it would attract a membership of top players from around the country.

Soon after its opening in 1989, Wolf Run received high praise from some of golf's greatest players and the course acquired a reputation for being too tough for the average golfer. After touring the course for the first time, Gary Player said, "Wolf Run is the best new course I've seen in twenty years." Nick Faldo played the course and told Smyers that Wolf Run had more variety than any course he'd ever seen. Faldo stated holes twelve through fifteen were "the most demanding yet fairest of any golf course I've ever seen." By years end, Wolf Run acquired a course rating of 74.3 and a slope of 151 from the back tees, which resulted in being considered among the toughest courses in the country.

The golf course is as diverse as its scenery, yet tests every facet of the player's ability. With narrow fairways and firm, fast greens surrounded by dramatic and strategic bunkering, players quickly realize that all the shots are required to play Wolf Run. Wolf Run's par three holes require intense strategy and range from a short, downhill shot of 132 yards to a small green that boarders Eagle Creek to another that requires the player to carry his tee shot more than 230 yards from a severe drop off to a green heavily surrounded by deep bunkers. Many of the par four holes demand long drives and carefully carved approaches to small targets, while others require precision in order for the player to find the best angle to attack the pin. Holes three, ten, and seventeen make up the par fives and are as beautiful, yet as challenging as any in America. As a result, Wolf Run is a thinking man's course, where a player at the top of his game would be offered strategic and at times heroic options on every hole.

Through the years, the course has been modified to take out some of the bite that the original design presented. However, the course is still quite demanding with a current course rating of 74.2 and a slope of 143. In 2003, Smyers renovated the course, which entailed the lengthening of several tees, the addition of several new bunkers to recreate the original design of certain holes, and finally the redesign of the 13th green.

Wolf Run is one of the Midwest's best kept secrets. There are few places that offer beauty and uniqueness while testing the player to his highest capabilities. Wolf Run is as finely balanced and strategically sound as it is challenging, which has lead to several awards and praise from the golfing community. Wolf Run is currently occupying the #18 position in Golfweek's America's 100 Best Modern Courses. -- Courtesy of Wolf Run Golf Club

Andrew Yun named to the All-Pac 10 first team by conference coaches

2011-05-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge

The following article appeared on the gostanford.com website - http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/050911aaa.html honoring Andrew Yun as an All-Pac 10 first team performer for his great 2010-11 season.

Andrew is currently ranked #2 by Golf Week/Sagarin --- http://www.golfweekrankings.com/ellington/default.asp?t=mi --- among all collegiate golfers behind only Peter Uihlein of Oklahoma State, and ahead of the Pac 10 player of the year, Patrick Cantlay of UCLA.

Andrew has a stroke average of 70.6, about 3 strokes lower than any other Stanford player this season, and he has one win and 7 top 10 finishes with a low round of 64. He finished 4th in the recent Pac 10 championship held at Stanford. See Andrew's summary results --- http://stanfordmensgolf.com/players.htm --- this year along with the rest of Stanford's players.

May 9, 2011

STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford's Andrew Yun was named to the 2011 All-Pac-10 Men's Golf Team on Monday, as selected in a vote of the conference coaches.

Yun, who has seven Top 5 finishes amonmg his 10 starts this season, including his first intercollegiate title, was Stanford's lone representative on the all-conference team.

Patrick Cantlay of UCLA was named the Pac-10 Men's Golfer of the Year and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, while UCLA's Derek Freeman was tabbed Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

Other first team honorees included Gregor Main of UCLA, Daniel Miernicki of Oregon, Alex Moore of Oregon State, Scott Pinckney of Arizona State, Martin Trainer of USC, Pontus Widegren of UCLA and Chris Williams of Washington.

Heading up the second team were Stephen Hale, Max Homa and Eric Mina of Cal, Charlie Hughes of Washington, Jeffrey Kang and Steve Lim of USC, Tarquin MacManus of Arizona and Andrew Vijarro of Oregon.

Ben An (Cal), Philip Francis (Arizona state) and T.J. Vogel (USC) landed honorable mention honors.

A look ahead --- update on the Incoming Freshmen: Rodgers, Grimes & Puyat

2011-05-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

Patrick Rodgers

Here's a review of Stanford's three incoming freshman for the 2011-12 season. The three are Patrick Rodgers of Indiana, Patrick Grimes of Northern California and Marcel Puyat of Southern California (by way of the Philipines).

In recent months, Patrick Rodgers, in particular, has been invited to participate in some high level amateur events and his results have been very strong up against excellent amateur and collegiate competition. Patrick finished 2nd, 1 shot behind the winner, at 11-under par in the Terra Cotta Invitational in Naples, Florida with rounds of 67-70-67 while Marcel finished tied for 11th with rounds of 70-73-71. In the Azalea Invitational in Georgia, March 24-27, Patrick finished third with rounds of 68-69-67-67--271 against another strong field. In the Jones Cup Invitational, February 4-6, Patrick finished tied for 3rd, one shot behind the leaders, on rounds of 73-71-74 beating notables such as Scott Langley, Patrick Reed, Bobby Wyatt and Peter Uihlein among others.

Patrick Rodgers is rising on the World Amateur Rankings, which weights results over the previous 12 months, as he is now ranked 63rd in the world --- ahead of him are current Stanford stars David Chung at #2, Andrew Yun at #13 and Sihwan Kim at #53.

Golf Week's overall rankings of junior golfers show Patrick Rodgers at #5, Patrick Grimes at #28 and Marcel at #89. Below are their search results from Golf Week summarizing their performances:

Patrick Rogers - Golf Week - click to enlarge

Patrick Grimes - Golf Week - click to enlarge

Marcel Puyat - Golf Week - click to enlarge

The AJGA rankings, which are skewed by the amount of events a junior plays in in the AJGA, shows rankings of Patrick Rodgers #5, Patrick Grimes #51 and Marcel #224. Their current tournament profiles and summaries are found below:

Marcel Puyat - AJGA - click to enlarge

Patrick Grimes - AJGA - click to enlarge

Patrick Rodgers - AJGA

2nd ranked Andrew Yun featured in SF Chronicle article about his parents' support

2011-05-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ron Kroichick - SF Gate, online version of SF Chronicle Newspaper

Parents sacrificed for Stanford golfer Andrew Yun

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/29/SPGA1J9908.DTL

SF Gate Photo

Andrew Yun embraced golf as a 7-year-old in Tacoma, Wash. He had played tennis previously, but he joined his dad on the links one day and soon came to savor the game's unique nature - facing the course more than an opponent.

At 14, already an accomplished junior player, Yun was emboldened enough to pose a weighty question to his parents: Want to move to Arizona?

It became a pivotal moment in Yun's winding path to Stanford, where he blossomed into the Cardinal's top player this season. Yun, a sophomore, is ranked No. 2 in the nation by Golfweek entering the Pac-10 championships, which begin today at Stanford.

The idea of moving to a warmer, practice-friendly climate is hardly revolutionary. Some of Yun's friends from junior tournaments made similar moves. Paula Creamer and her parents relocated from Pleasanton to Florida when she was 14, so she could attend a golf academy.

Still, year-round sunshine hardly guarantees Creamer-like success. And Yun's family had firm roots in the Pacific Northwest: His parents, Paul and Gloria, lived in Tacoma for 25 years after coming to the United States from Korea.

They owned several convenience stores and gas stations in Washington. They sold all but two of them and headed to suburban Phoenix, even if they knew few people there. (They now manage a hotel in Mesa, Ariz.) It helped that Yun's two older sisters already were in college at the time.

"It was something I suggested, and it obviously was a very tough decision for my parents," Yun said this week. "They sacrificed so much for me. They felt like I knew what I was talking about, even though I was 14. They knew it would help my game a lot in the long run."

Yun struggled in the short run. He had trouble adjusting to swing changes pushed by a new coach (whom he later dropped) and tumbled from No. 3 in national junior rankings to No. 150.

He felt extra pressure his first year in Arizona, partly because his parents uprooted their lives to accommodate his ambitions - and he was going in the wrong direction.

"That really humbled me," Yun said of his plunge in the rankings.

He eventually righted himself after reconnecting for long-distance lessons with Joe Thiel, his former coach in Tacoma. Yun had the best of both worlds, with warm winters for extended practice and a coach with whom he was comfortable.

Yun doesn't hit the ball especially far - his average drive travels 275-280 yards, by his estimate (Editor's note ---- watching Andrew in the Pac 10 showed he can hit it 300+ yards when he wants to) - but he leans on accuracy and a sharp short game. He has posted Stanford's low score in six of seven events this season, with five top-5 finishes. (he added another top 5 finish in the Pac 10 tourney finishing 4th).

Now comes a conference tournament with a history of producing individual winners who later thrive as pros, from Scott Simpson (1975-76) and Corey Pavin ('82) to Phil Mickelson ('90) and Tiger Woods ('96). Yun is a long way from matching those players, but he's already come a long way.

Cardinal settles for 4th in the Pac 10 Championship, 5 shots behind USC & Oregon

2011-04-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

The challenging par 4 9th hole at Stanford

Stanford lineup for the 52nd Pac 10 Championship being held at Stanford historic golf course includes Andrew Yun, David Chung, Steve Ziegler, Graham Brockington, Steven Kearney and Cameron Wilson - these 6 players are competing with 5 scores counting each of the 4 rounds. Results are posted below in reverse order below with the tournament background posted after each of the four round results.

FINAL RESULTS - On a beautiful spring day Stanford fought hard but came up just short of a win on its home course, ending 5 shots behind USC and Oregon and two shots behind UCLA. David Chung finished with a 1-under 69, despite two closing bogies, in a closing round that bodes well for Stanford's NCAA prospects as David in regular form is a force to contend with.

Andrew Yun finished 4th individually (72-70-66-70) closing with a 70 in a round where he couldn't get putts to fall. With the tournament decided, he made one of his few bad swings on the 18th tee to finish with a double bogey. It's been a spectacular year for Andrew, however, one that will certainly earn him All-American honors as Stanford's leading player. He has a remarkable seven top 5 finishes in the ten tournaments this season. I was most impressed by Andrew's course demeanor in his final round, displaying poise and positive body language - and he couldn't have been a better gentleman to his playing partner, freshman Martin Trainer of Palo Alto and USC, who won individual honors in the event.

Senior captain Steve Ziegler tied for 11th individually (69-70-70-75) after a 4-over four hole stretch of holes from 6 thru 9 led to a front nine 39 -- he followed with a 36 on the back in a round that may have been affected by Steve's limited play and conditioning recently due to a bad back coming into the tournament. It was good to see Steve strongly supporting his teammates' good play in front and behind him during the event.

Senior Graham Brockington had his finest hour in his Stanford career finishing tied for 16th overall (70-69-73-73). After limited appearances in his first three season, this final season has found Graham steadily improving to play his best golf in recent weeks. In this event, only some struggles at the end of his final two founds kept him from contending with the leaders.

Steven Kearney, an improving sophomore, contributed three solid rounds to the team's efforts (71-75-72-72) to finish tied for 30th individually. Steven showed a big-time, long-hitting game that was so close to top form only lacking a few putts to fall here and there. His performance bodes well for Stanford's future. Freshman Cameron Wilson started slowly in his final round as he went out in 4-over 39 without a birdie, but came through big-time on the back nine with a 33 including clutch birdies on 13, 16 & 17. No doubt a bright future is ahead for Cameron who has a balanced, fluid swing and great length.

Final round scorecards are included below - click to enlarge:

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

The NCAA championships lie ahead for the Cardinal and the team is poised to do great things.

gostanford.com summarized the final round well below:

STANFORD, Calif. - Playoffs decided both the team and individual titles at the 2011 Pac-10 Men's Golf Championships at Stanford Golf Course as USC defeated Oregon on the first playoff hole to claim the team championship, while USC's Matt Trainer defeated Alex Moore of Oregon State on the seventh playoff hole to win the individual title.

Stanford shot a final round team score of 356 (+6) on Sunday to finish fourth .

Alex Kim of UCLA finished third at 277 (-3) while Stanford's Andrew Yun placed fourth at 278 (-2).

Oregon, which began the day tied with UCLA for third place at +20, shot a final round team score of 345 (-5) to force a playoff with USC, which carded a final round 354 (+4). Daniel Miernicki (67; -3), Jack Dukeminier (67; -3) and Andrew Vijaro (69; -1) led Oregon's final round charge, combining to shoot -8 on the back nine. Vijaro was -4 on the back side alone, collecting an eagle on the par-4 15th hole.

Sam Smith was the only Trojan in red numbers on Sunday, managing a three-under 67, while Trainer shot an even par 70, which included an untimely bogey on the par-5, 16th hole. All told, USC played the back nine at four over par, to slip into a playoff with the Ducks.

After Trainer claimed the individual title in a seven-hole playoff that took 1:45, USC won the six-player, one hole playoff in convincing fashion to earn the team title.

Trainer, a product of Palo Alto's Gunn High School, pared the seventh playoff hole to claim the individual title over Moore. After the two players matched pars six times on the 18th hole, Moore drove into the right rough and was forced to chip out. His third shot landed 25 feet right of the hole and his attempt to save par came up inches short. After hitting a perfect drive, Trainer's second shot to a back pin location came up some 40 feet short, but the sophomore was able to salvage par to claim the conference's individual title.

Stanford entered the final round in second place at +14, three strokes behind USC. However, the Cardinal was +6 on its final round, with only one player managing to come in under par.

Yun, who was paired with USC's Trainer on Sunday, was -2 on his round before making a double bogey on the par-4, 18th hole to finish at even par 70. It marked his seventh top-5 finish in 10 events this season.

Senior Steve Ziegler tied for 11th at 285 (+5), shooting a final round 75 that included three bogeys, one double bogey and no birdies.

Graham Brockington tied for 16th at 285 (+5) after a final round 73. He was even par on his round through 13 holes but bogeyed three of the last five holes to finish three over for the day.

Steve Kearney tied for 30th at 290 (+10) after carding a final round 72 on Sunday. He was even par through his first nine holes but picked up bogeys on holes No. 12 and 18.

Freshman Cameron Wilson tied for 42nd at 295 (+15), closing with a final round 72. After playing his first nine holes at +4, Wilson picked up three birdies on the back nine to finish with a 72.

Junior David Chung finished 44th at 296 (+16) after shooting a final round 69, the only Cardinal under par on Sunday. Chung was -3 on his round before making bogeys on his final two holes of the day. He played his last 45 holes of the tournament at two under par.

Stanford will wait to hear on its draw for NCAA Regional play, which gets underway on May 19 at a site to be determined.

Andrew Yun 3rd round - click to enlarge

ROUND THREE - Stanford has climbed up the leader board into 2nd place after three rounds, 3 shots behind USC. Three Cardinal golfers have moved into the top 10 individually led by Andrew Yun who is tied for 3rd at 2-under, 208 total (72-70-66), after a solid 66 in round three that included 5 birdies and only 1 bogey. Steve Ziegler continued his consistent play with an even par 70 that included two birdies and two bogeys and is tied for 5th overall with rounds of 69-70-70. Graham Brockington is at 212 total (70-69-73) tying for 9th overall despite a closing bogey-double bogey finish. Stanford article with photo gallery. The photo at the left of Andrew Yun is courtesy of Dave Elkinson.

David Chung fought back from a bogey-bogey start to post a 1-over 71 in a round that included11 straight pars followed by two birdies, two more pars and a bogey finish. Steven Kearney posted a 2-over 72 in his third round as he birdied two of his last four holes - he's tied for 28th overall at 228 (71-75-72). Cameron Wilson stands at 223 total, in 45th individually carding rounds of 72-75-76. Scorecards from round 3 are below - click to enlarge:

Round 3 scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND TWO - The 2nd round was played on day 1 again under tough, windy conditions. It's a wide open tournament with two rounds left to play. Stanford remains in 3rd place three shots behind USC and one behind Oregon with UCLA a shot behind Stanford in 4th. Seniors Brockington and Ziegler again led the way with 69 & 70 respectively and are tied for 4th individually at 1 under 139 totals. Sophomore Andrew Yun had a solid even par 70 and is tied for 14th individually at 142.

Junior David Chung turned around a tough start with a solid 2-under 33 on the back nine to post a 74 while Steven Kearney and Cameron Wilson both carded 75s. Scorecards for round 2 and 1 can be found below:

Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 1 SCORING:
Playing on a cool, sunny and very windy day Stanford finished round 1 in 3rd place 3 shots behind Oregon and 1 shot behind UCLA. It was a struggle early as Oregon shot out to a large lead over the front nine and Stanford came on strongly to close the gap.

Two seniors led the way, with both struggling early and coming on fast with very strong finishes. Steve Ziegler 1-under 69 had him 3 over par after 5 holes and finishing with four birdies and no bogies thereafter. Graham Brockington also finished strong with four birdies starting on 13 after going 4 over through 12 holes.

Sophomore Steven Kearney played steadily throughout with nines of 36-35 on his way to a solid 1-over 71 while Andrew Yun and Cameron Wilson carded 2 over 72 scores. David Chung struggled to an 82 marred by a triple and two double bogies. Round one scorecards are below - click to enlarge.

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

BACKGROUND INFO:
No included in the lineup was senior Sihwan Kim, again due to concerns of aggravating his back. Coach Phil Rowe shares that "the obvious omission is Sihwan. In the end it was a decision that was taken to eliminate any risk that sihwan might aggravate his back on a long 36 hole day. NCAA regionals and nationals are 1 round per day and we want to be absolutely sure that he is able to come through the entire post season."

Here are some useful links for the tournament: Tee times & Pairings | Stanfordmensgolf.org | Official Pac 10 site | Real Time Scoring | Stanford Golf Course website | gostanford.com announcement.

UCLA is the team to beat based on the national rankings by Golf Week shown below. In those same rankings, sophomore Andrew Yun is the ranked 2nd nationally just ahead of UCLA freshman Cantlay. Stanford is looking for strong support from past All-Americans David Chung and Steve Ziegler who have shown signs of returning to form that had each all Pac 10 performers.

TEAM	2011 RANKING
UCLA	3
California	18
Stanford	20
USC	21
Oregon	22
ASU	27
Washington	30
OSU	48
Arizona	64
WSU	89

Head coach Conrad Ray shares his view on the event:

"The fact that we are playing on our home course lends itself to having six guys playing with the mentality that they can win the golf tournament," he said. "With the six, count five format, you really need to rely on the depth of your team. I've felt good about our depth one through 10 all season. We'd all like to see Andrew continue his excellent form this weekend," said Ray. "He's established himself as one of the premier players in the country."

The Cardinal is also counting heavily on Chung, who played in the Masters earlier this month as the U.S. Amateur runner-up, but has just one top-10 finish this season.

"David is eager to get out there," said Ray. "He's worked through some scheduling challenges that comes with playing in the Masters and is feeling really good about his game right now."

Ziegler and Brockington both have Pac-10 Championship experience, while Kearney and Wilson will be making their conference debuts.

"We definitely need production across the board, especially since we are playing six guys," said Ray. "In our strong tournaments this season, we've had multiple guys in the hunt.

On the other side, we've had our tournaments where only one or two guys play well and the rest of the team struggles."

While ending a 16-year title drought remains the ultimate goal, Ray has also stressed to his team the importance of building up some momentum with NCAA Regional play rapidly approaching.

"To be able to call yourself the champion of the Pac-10 Conference is a great accomplishment and motivation in of itself," said Ray. "But we also realize what is ahead of us. This weekend would be a great time to start building some momentum."

Kim & Ziegler recovering from back injury and may play in the Pac 10 Championship

2011-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

An exciting development for the Stanford Cardinal is that two seniors and former All-Americans Sihwan Kim and Steve Ziegler may be healthy enough to return to the team lineup. Sihwan has had the more serious back issues that have produced irregular participation in team qualifying tournaments and prevented his travel for multiple events this season. Sihwan's best event of this 2010-11 season was a 6th place at the Gifford Collegiate at Cordevalle last November but otherwise.

Team trainer Tomoo Yamada reports that “Sihwan strained his lower back and we have been slowly strengthening his back muscles to provide more stability to prevent from restraining the back as he retunes his game. We are carefully evaluating his returning date. As of April 22nd, his back is responding well and given what Sihwan has done in the past weeks, we expect to see him on the golf course soon”.

Steve Ziegler tweaked his back before the last event at Pasatiempo and he missed his first event of the year. He reports his back is improving and although it has given him trouble in recent months he is hopeful that it will allow him to play at the important Pac 10 championship. Steve was a 2nd team All-American and member of the US Porter Cup team in 2009 and has been a key starter throughout his wonderful Stanford career.

Coaches Ray and Rowe report that "we are excited that team captain Steve is likely to be able to play and that there is an outside chance that Sihwan may be able to tee it up for the Cardinal on the big stage of the Pac 10 Conference Championship. This is the time of year when there is great opportunity as the stakes get ramped up for the top ranked teams."

Sihwan reportedly is almost at the point where he is healthy enough to hit his full range of shots and when that is combined with his phenomenal short game ability then his potential inclusion in the lineup is certainly an exciting development. Sihwan was a first team All-American as a freshman after winning the US Junior Amateur championship at the Olympic Club.

Let's see what happens!

Andrew Yun picked for Palmer Cup to represent US vs Europe in June

2011-04-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to sophomore Andrew Yun, named to represent the United States in the Palmer Cup vs Europe to be played June 9-11 in Connecticutt.

It's been a remarkably consistent season by Andrew in 2010-11 coming on the heels of very strong summer play. Andrew's 70.8 stroke average is low on the team by almost 3 strokes and he has 6 top 5 finishes and one 1st in 9 events.

Andrew finished tied for 11th at Olympia Fields in September with rounds of 69-68-76 (213), first at The Prestige October 10-12 with 70-69-65 (204), 4th at Isleworth October 24-26 with 71-70-76 (217), 15th at CordeValle Nov 8-10 with 74-71-73, tied for 22nd in Hawaii Feb 2-4 with 75-68-69 (212), tied for 5th at USC Feb 28-Mar 1 with 70-70-71 (211), tied for 4th in Georgia March 27-29 with 71-68-72, finished 2nd in Texas with 73-74-69 (216) and tied for 2nd again at Pasatiempo Apr 16-17 with 68-70-71 (209).

Here's a link to the press conference video announcing all selections on the Golf Week website.

Here's the story as reported in gostanford.com:

STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford sophomore Andrew Yun has been named to the United States teams that will compete in the 2011 Palmer Cup, which is set for June 9-11 at The Stanwich Club outside of Greenwich, Conn.

Yun will join Blayne Barber of Auburn, UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay, Abilene Christian’s Alex Carpenter, Russell Henley of Georgia, Oregon’s Daniel Miernicki, Bank Vongvanij of Florida and Washington’s Chris Williams on the U.S. squad.

Henley and Miernicki were part of last year’s victories American squad at Royal Portrush with Henley posting a 3-1 record and Miernicki a 2-2 mark. The United States team will be lead by head coach Tim Poe of Central Missouri and assistant coach Michael Burcin of South Carolina.

Representing Europe will be Arkansas’ Sebastian Cappelen, Ignacio Elvira of Texas A&M, Texas Tech’s Nils Floren, Jeff Karlsson of Kennesaw State, Liberty’s Robert Karlsson, Nick MacAndrew of Aberdeen, Augusta State’s Henrik Norlander and UCLA’s Pontus Widegren.

Widegren went 3-1 at the 2010 Palmer Cup while Norlander was 2-2. Norlander also posted a 2-2 mark at the 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills and helped lead Europe to victory. Floren, Norlander, Widegren and both Jeff and Robert Karlsson hail from Sweden while Cappelen is a native of Denmark, Elvira is from Spain and MacAndrew is Scottish.

Rickard Lindberg of the Swedish Golf Federation will serve as head coach of the European team and Northwestern’s David Inglis will serve as his assistant. Inglis is the first former Palmer Cup player to serve as a coach in the event after representing Scotland in both 2001 and 2003. The United States leads the Palmer Cup series 7-6-1.

Cardinal finishes tied for 11th in the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo

2011-04-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Stanford tied for 11th at the Western Intercollegiate played at the superb Pasatiempo CC designed by Alistair Mackenzie of Augusta National fame. Although relatively short in length at 6,615 yards, the par 70 offers many challenges to even the best players. Very fast, undulating greens provide a test of nerves and many holes require precise accuracy off the tee. This event included 6 players from each team with 5 scores counting each day -- two Stanford players paired up in each round with two others from different teams.

MacKenzie himself lived on the 16th, one of the world's best and toughest short par fours, and Stanford's scoring showed that toughness. In the third alone, Steven Kearney's 4-over 8 and David Chung's 7 marred otherwise solid rounds.

As he has all season long, sophomore All-American to be, Andrew Yun, was steady as a rock finishing tied for 2nd overall individually after rounds of 68-70-71 for a 1-under 209 total. Andrew has finished in the top ten in every tournament this year, a record that few have matched over all the years of Stanford golf.

Freshman Shane Lebow's 225 total was next from rounds of 75-73-77 -- Shane's final round was up and down with two double bogies and 6 bogies offset by an eagle and birdie. Masters participant David Chung is still rounding into form as he shot 226 on rounds of 79-73-74 to tie for 61st -- as indicated above his final round was steady with two bogies and one birdie through 15 holes but the triple bogie at 16 left him 4-over for the day.

Sophomore Steven Kearney's 227 total left him tied for 64th after rounds of 78-72-77 -- only 1-over par through 14 holes in round 3, then double and quadruple bogies back-to-back on 15 and 16 led to his 7-over score. Senior Graham Brockington scored 232 total with rounds of 81-78-73 -- after leading qualifying going into the event Graham was likely disappointed in his finish despite a steady final round 3-over 73. Freshman Cameron Wilson carded a 235 total on rounds of 75-81-79 -- Cameron's final 9-over total in large part was due to a quadruple bogie 8 on the first hole and a double bogie 7 on the sixth hole.

Final round scorecards are show below -- click to enlarge:

3rd round scorecards - click to enlarge

Next comes the Pac-10 championship held at our beautiful home Stanford Golf Course April 29-May 1st.

Morris Williams Invitational hosted by Texas Longhorns

2011-04-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

FINAL RESULTS
Stanford finished 6th in the Morris Williams Invitational hosted by the University of Texas in a tourney marked by high winds and high scores. Finishing second individually, 1 shot behind, was sophomore Andrew Yun after rounds of 73-74-69 and a 216 total. Andrew has finished in the top ten of every event this year showing remarkable consistency.

Graham Brockington (78-76-77) and Steven Kearney (84-73-74) tied for 30th with 231 totals. Steve Ziegler (79-76-81) tied for 52nd with a 236 total and Cameron Wilson tied for 62nd with a 239 total and rounds of 81-79-78. Scorecards for the final round can be found below:

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

AFTER TWO ROUNDS

Stanford finds itself in 5th place after two rounds, 11 strokes behind host Texas, battling high winds gusting to 40 mph. As he has done in every tournament this season, Andrew Yun leads the way with rounds of 73-74 as he is tied for 3rd individually. Scorecards for the first two rounds can be found below:

Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

Gostanford.com filed the following report after the first two rounds:

AUSTIN, Texas - Stanford's men's golf teams finds itself in fifth place at the 36 hole mark of the Morris Williams Invitational being held at the University of Texas Golf Course in Austin, Texas.

The Cardinal shot a team score of 312 in its morning round on Monday, but improved by 13 strokes in the afternoon to card a 299. At 611, Stanford is +43 for 36 holes and trail first place and host Texas (296-304-600) by 11 strokes heading into tomorrow's final round.

TCU is in second place at 601 (+33), followed closely by Arkansas (604) and Texas Tech (610).

New Mexico (612) and Pepperdine (612) are on the heels of the Cardinal and the rest of the leaders.

Stanford sophomore Andrew Yun is tied for third place at 147 (+5) after carding rounds of 73 and 74 on Monday. He had just one birdie on his card in the morning and offset six bogies with three birdies on his afternoon 18.

Yun and Arkansas' Jamie Marshall trail first round leader Tom Hogue (141) of TCU by six strokes, while Texas' Julio Vegas (143) is two strokes off the pace.

Senior Graham Brockington is tied for 23rd at 154 after rounds of 78 and 76.

Senior Steve Ziegler is tied for 29th at 155 (+13) after rounds of 79 and 76.

After shooting an 84 in his morning round, sophomore Steve Ziegler carded a 1-over 73 in his afternoon round and stands at 157, good for a tie for 40th place.

Cameron Wilson shot rounds of 82 and 79 and is tied for 59th at 161.

Cardinal tied for 3rd in Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia

2011-03-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

The renowned Great Waters Golf Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, at Reynolds Plantation in Eatonville, Georgia is the site of the Linger Longer Invitational, hosted by the University of Georgia. The solid field includes all southern teams except for the Cardinal, including Alabama, Chattanooga, Kennesaw State, Florida State, Charlotte, Memphis, Coastal Carolina, Mercer, Appalachian State, Jacksonville and Furman. Live scoring is provided by GolfStat.

FINAL RESULTS:
The Cardinal ended tied for 3rd, two shots behind 2nd place Chattanooga and 20 shots behind Alabama. Stanford was once again led by sophomore Andrew Yun who finished tied for 4th individually with rounds of 71-68-72. Over the three days Andrew had only two bogies and one double bogie offset by 9 birdies.

Steven Kearney had his best tournament result finishing tied for 13th with rounds of 73-74-71 - Steven finished with an eagle 3 on the final hole to move Stanford into the tie for 3rd position. Steve Ziegler tied for 21st with 73-73-74, Cameron Wilson finished 27th after his 77-71-74 rounds and David Chung tied for 58th with rounds of 72-81-77. David is off to play in the Masters at Augusta National while the team travels to Austin, Texas to play in their next event April 4-6.

Final round scorecards can be found below:

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND TWO RESULTS:
Stanford remained in 3rd position after two rounds trailing the leading Alabama team by 13 shots. Andrew Yun continued his strong play with rounds of 71-68 (T3), followed by Steve Ziegler's 73-73, Steven Kearney's 73-74, Cameron Wilson's 77-71 and David Chung's 72-81. Graham Brockington playing as an individual had 74-75. After two rounds of play, Andrew Yun has a single bogie and 6 birdies.

ROUND ONE RESULTS:
Round 1 was delayed by thunderstorms for two hours with the Cardinal ending up in third place after rounds of 71 (Andrew Yun), 72 (David Chung), 73 (Steve Ziegler and Steven Kearney) and 77 by Cameron Wilson. Graham Brockington, playing as an individual, shot a 74. Andrew's 71 included 17 pars and one birdie while David Chung's par round was marred by a final hole double bogie 7.

Updates as David Chung plays in the Masters Apr 4-11

2011-03-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

From Masters.com

This blog tracks the preparation for and experience of playing in the Masters by Stanford's All-American junior David Chung. New articles are published in reverse order with links to the full article available here featuring David's own blog written for the Masters.com. This is the first time a current Stanford golfer will play in the Masters since Tiger Woods played in 1996.

April 8 - David's Masters Diary - Battle Comes Up Short:

I fought my butt off today trying to make the cut. I was hitting it really crappy but getting up‑and‑down from a lot of crazy places. And I finally had a birdie putt on the 18th, 6 feet, and I said, well, after I made all those par putts, this should be easy. But I just misjudged the speed. And it would have been awesome, but I still am happy with the way that I fought today.

I'll just remember the moments that I had with my caddie and my coach, as well, and just being out there just trying to take it all in. The patrons, they're just unbelievable, and it's fun to have such a large group of people reacting to your shots. I think that's just awesome.

And then just the mystique of Augusta National. It's a place like no other. I know that's a slogan, but it's really true. I just am really thankful to be a part of the amateur tradition here.

I was thinking about the cut, like it might be around 2-over. And I fought back, I made a good birdie on 13, I almost made a birdie on 14 and I was right in position to make a birdie on 15, and I just didn't capitalize. But I didn't have my swing at all today, and I fought really hard, and I'm proud of myself.

I think I'm going to stick around for the weekend, take in some more Masters atmosphere. When you're in the moment, it's hard to realize where you are, but once you're out of it, you look back and you say, "Wow, that really was a big moment," and I'm really thankful to be a part of it. It was just surreal that I was part of it. Click to read the full article on Masters.com - David's Masters Diary - Battle Comes Up Short.

Masters.com photo - David on #3 in round 2. Click to enlarge

April 8 - Round 2 Results: David cards a 4-over 76 (39-37) with 5 bogies and 1 birdie on 13 leaving him tied for 64th, 3 shots above the record-low cut line of 1 over par. His scorecards for each round is shown below.

Round 2 and 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

April 7 - Masters Diary - Nerves give way to solid round:

I shot 72, and all I can say is it was nerve-wracking on the first tee. We were the second group off, and so many people had already congregated around the tee box. I hit some good drives, I hit some squirrely drives. But I was in scoring mode today. I hit a lot of very good shots and was rewarded for that. I also hit a few bad shots. But I committed to it and willed out a good round.

My first drive, I hit it left into the trees. I had about 180 yards, and the only shot I had was high over the trees. But I decided to hit it short right and chipped it up and made about a 5-footer for par. First hole, I scraped it around, and it definitely was a confidence builder knowing I could manage the green and my short game. It definitely was a positive start.

It was surreal out there. I mean, I've never played in front of a crowd this big, and that first hole, I had a chip shot, and it seemed like the crowd was standing about four feet from me, like close enough where the chip shot actually could have hit them. It was much different, but at the same time it was really cool because if you hit a good drive or a good shot, then everybody would give you the oohs and the ahhs.

Actually, the course didn't play that hard today, because there were some receptive pins and there wasn't much wind. I got a nice tee time this morning. I was fortunate for that. The greens were good. The one thing I did very well today was birdying three of the four par 5s, which if you can score out here ‑‑ kind of play it safe and go for another birdie on the par 4s, but I played the rest of the way even.

I think my Masters moment struck me when I hit my drive a little bit right on No. 7 and it hit a branch, kicked down into the fairway. I had 230 yards to the hole, and that green is very shallow. I was approaching my shot, and I thought, "Where among those 5,000 people behind the green should I aim?" You couldn't see anything but the people. The flag was pretty much hidden, and I hit a nice shot with a hybrid up there like 15 feet.

I thought I didn't really waste any shots except for my bogeys at Nos. 17 and 18. I had about a 5‑footer down the hill I missed at No. 17. I played it to break left, and for some reason it went right. It's just those mysterious greens out there. Then I hit just a bad drive right into the trees at No. 18 and had to chip out. I screwed up the layup there. But it was a good day for my first Masters. Click to see the article on Masters.com - Masters Diary - Nerves give way to solid round.

April 7 - Round 1 Results: David fires an even par 72 (36-36) with 3 birdies and 3 bogies leaving him tied for 31st overall, and tied for low amateur honors for the day. After the front nine David's round was covered live online at Amen Corner as he got up and down on 11 from about 50 yards, birdied the par 5 13th with a rescue 2nd shot to the green and birdied the par 5 15th as well to go 2 under for the day. He ended the round with bogies on the final two holes.

Round 1 scorecard - click to enlarge

The Fayetteville Observer, David's hometown newspaper posted an excellent report of his round which is excerpted below:

AUGUSTA, Ga. - For 16 holes Thursday, David Chung competed like a veteran at the Masters instead of a college student playing in his first pro tournament. He was 2-under par and on the leaderboard.

But a wayward driver finally caught up to him on the final two holes and he finished with two bogeys to shoot an even-par 72.

It was still a great accomplishment for the 21-year-old from Fayetteville who put himself in position to make the cut today with another good round.

A junior at Stanford, Chung said he visualized shooting a 69 in the first round and he was on target to do it until the last two holes.

"I had it going and I thought it was going to be a reality," he said. "But I kind of messed up the last two holes. It was disappointing to finish with two bogeys. You dream of having a perfect round, and I had a pretty perfect round going until the last two holes."

The fact that Chung was 2-under through 16 was a testament to his scrambling ability. He was as much an escape artist as a golfer because his driver kept him in handcuffs and locked trunks.

It started on the first hole when he pulled his drive into the trees. He hit a 180-yard shot over the Georgia pines to just right of the green and got it up and down for par.

"Making that par was definitely a confidence-builder, knowing I could manage the greens with my short game," Chung said.

Highland Country Club pro Jens Klemsche was among a contingent of Fayetteville people in the gallery who followed Chung for all 18 holes.

"David has a world-class short game," Klemsche said. "One day at Highland, he was showing me a shot where he was short-sided and he had about 14 different ways to play it."

Click to Read the complete article in the Fayetteville Observer.

April 6 - From David's Masters Diary entitled Fun with Dad in Par 3 Contest:

I played the Par 3 Contest, and the funniest thing was when I got to the ninth hole and I hadn't made a birdie yet. My dad, Chris, was my caddie, and he said, "God, make a birdie already, what are you doing?" I'm like, "OK," and I hit this exact shot that I had visualized, and it hit about 20 feet behind the hole, and I see it tracking back toward the hole, and I'm like, "Oh my God, it's going in!" And it just lipped out and stopped two feet away, and the crowd was like, "Oooohhhhhhhh!"

So then I have this really short putt, and go to my Dad, "Hey, why don't you putt it?" He's like, "OK, OK," but then he says, "I can't putt with your long putter. It feels really weird, I'm going to yip it." I'm like, "Dad, it's a foot and a half! You can make it!"

So we borrowed a putter from another player, and he got over it, he's sitting over it, and he makes this really quick backstroke, and he hits it in the dead-center of the cup. That was just great. I shot even par, and my dad made my only birdie.

It was a really cool day. So many people, all the kids were there … it was awesome.

I played 14 holes today, played the front nine by myself and then joined with Retief Goosen, Sean O'Hair and Charl Schwartzel for four or five holes. It was really good. Goosen hits it so hard and far, it's ridiculous. He's huge. In person, his upper body and arms have so much meat on them. Oh, and the guy can putt, too.

Read More - the complete article at Masters.com.

April 6 - Excerpted From the Fayetteville Observer: David vs. Goliath - Fayetteville Golfer Ready for shot at the Masters.
By Eddie Southards, The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.

April 06--From the time his father first put a set of plastic golf clubs in his hands at the age of 10 months, David Chung has been preparing for golf's biggest stage. But the 21-year-old golfer from Fayetteville hardly seems fazed by it.

On Thursday, Chung will tee it up in the Super Bowl of golf -- the Masters in Augusta, Ga.

David qualified for the tournament by finishing as the runner-up at the U.S. Amateur in August.

"Hopefully, I play well. That would be a great thing. But I just want to soak up the experience," David said. "I don't think I will remember my score, but I will remember the people I meet, the things I do and the experiences I have."

Outwardly, David appears calm and poised. He speaks in low, measured tones about entering the game at its highest level. He is all business. He rarely cracks a smile when talking about it.

His mother, Elise Chung, is amazed at how her son has handled himself in pressure situations, playing in front of large crowds. He was the runner-up in the U.S. Junior Amateur, as well.

"What I'm most proud of is how he handles himself in that type of situation," she said. "It's just like a walk in the park to him. I can't believe that's my son. He's calmer than my husband or myself."

Top instruction

Maybe his poise comes from a lifetime of premier instruction. It started with Jens Klemschke, the head professional at Highland Country Club since 1997. Klemschke remembers watching David since he was 5 when his father, Chris Chung, would teach him how to hold the club.

"I knew almost immediately he was special," Klemschke said. "When he was 7 or 8, he was hitting golf shots most adults can't hit. It was amazing how the ball was coming off the club face."

David moved on to the late golf professional L.B. Floyd, who guided two other Fayetteville men, his son, Raymond, and Chip Beck, to successful careers in golf.

"Mr. Floyd worked with David when he was 9 or 10," Elise said. "He was the first one that said he was special. We thought he was just being nice."

David was home-schooled, which made it easier to accommodate his practice schedule. He entered a special program at Fayetteville Technical Community College when he was 14 to finish high school and attended a golf academy in Orlando, Fla., where school work and golf instruction were combined.

When it came time to pick a college, David had his choice of scholarship offers.

However, there was really only one college choice for David, who grew up idolizing former Stanford golfer Tiger Woods.

"He chose Stanford because Tiger did," Elise said. "When he visited Stanford, it was really special to him."

Excerpted From the Fayetteville Observer: David vs. Goliath - Fayetteville Golfer Ready for shot at the Masters.

April 2 - From David's Masters Diary entitled Ready to Play

I'm really excited and ready to experience the Masters, pumped up to get it started. I went to Atlanta with my Mom after the Linger Longer college tournament last week, and I just chilled out for a couple days. I wanted to hang out, go to the mall, go to a movie, normal stuff like that. I'm going to get a lot of golf next week and don't want to overdo it. I just wanted to wind down, get ready to pack up for the Crow's Nest, and give my mind a little bit of rest, so when I start up, I'm fresh.

My Stanford coach, Conrad Ray, texted Tiger to see if he would be willing to play a practice round with me. I'm kind of anxious to see how that will turn out. There's nobody better to learn from than a past champion. I hope, maybe because Tiger's a Stanford alum, and he's played with other Stanford guys before at the U.S. Open in practice rounds, that he might want to do it. As a team, my freshman and sophomore year, he had us all over to his house for dinner when we played tournaments in Florida. It would be really cool … I'll be waiting for my coach to text me and let me know.

I talked a bit with my caddie, Rowdy, to get an update on how Augusta National is playing and how the conditions are changing every day. I also heard a really funny story about Billy Andrade when he was an amateur. When you walk down from the Crow's Nest, you can turn right or left. Well, Andrade turned left, went into a room and sat down with his oatmeal and fruit, and some of the other players started looking at him. It was the Champions locker room where some champions were sitting down having breakfast, and he's in there like he was one of them, not knowing he was in the wrong place. Finally, they say to him, 'You don't take a left when you come down the stairs. You turn right. You never go left.' It was kind of funny to hear, but it's good for me to know. I won't be making that mistake. More - Click to read the entire article.

March 26 - From David's Masters Diary entitled Visiting Augusta

You won't believe this … I was at Augusta National this week!

It was such a great surprise from my parents. I had been so busy with finals at school; I hadn't made any plans for spring break. When I got home to North Carolina, they said, 'You're only going to be home for a couple days because we made a couple tee times for you.' My parents planned it out, set up everything.

I got here Tuesday and I stayed until Thursday. I came here with my Mom, Elise. It's the first time she's been here, and it was awesome to see her reaction. She was like, wow, this is amazing. She drove like 3 mph when we first came through the gate - you can drive a little bit faster than that - but she didn't want to leave Magnolia Lane. She came and walked with me on the golf course, and I think it was a little more hilly than she expected. My Dad's at home right now working to pay the bills so we can be down here, but he'll be with us for the tournament.

It was so nice. The weather is perfect, the course is beautiful. I went to the range in the morning, and it was heaven. I'd hit some balls, and 10 minutes later, all the balls were off the range and I had a new stack right next to me. Practice greens are almost always slower than on any course, but these putting and chipping greens are just as fast as we see out there. The grass is perfect; not a blade out of place. I feel bad taking divots. I might have to shallow out my swing plane and pick the ball more so I don't take any divots.

I played 18 holes, just dropping balls, chipping from different locations, like a normal practice round. There were quite a few other pros out here. I saw Alex Cejka, Jason Day, Stewart Cink and Paul Casey. I actually met Jason Day and talked with him a little bit. It was a really cool experience to see them all out here practicing and being a part of it.

Click here to read the entire article.

March 19 - From David's Masters diary comes this article entitled Final Exams.

I just took my last final exam, so I'm done with school now. It was a three-hour final for my Communications class. You can use all the time if you need it, and I was writing until the last second. I'm not really good at gauging how much time I have on those things, and my hands hurt afterward!

With my responsibility to the golf team and schoolwork, the Masters has been in the back of my mind. But I'm going to really have control over my practice schedule now, and I can devote all my time to preparing for the Masters.

I've been trying to absorb everything I can about the Masters, and it's surprising how much I learned and how much I think I know. From Roberto De Vicenzo signing the wrong scorecard, to Jack winning at 46 years old, to Freddie Couples hitting that shot that stayed up on 12, to Larry Mize chipping in to beat Greg Norman … there are so many memories. I think that's the case because the Masters is played on one prestigious course. You're exposed to different characters, but it's the same scene, the same backdrop. It seems like I know so much about the place because I've seen so many highlights and watched so many tournaments.

I think that can translate into how I approach things. It's definitely an attribute. I can go back to look at what shots to practice, what lies you might get, what pin placements everybody sees. It's such a broad database to draw from, just a great source of information for me. You still have to hit the shots, of course, but at least you know what you have to do.

I've gleaned a couple things from other players. Anthony Kim has been very generous in being somewhat of a mentor on how to approach the Masters, the mindset you need, how there are no expectations, how to just go in there and play fearlessly. Nathan Smith - I've talked to him about what it's like to be in the Crow's Nest, what it's like to be in crowds that large. From Gabriel Hjertstedt - he's my chipping coach - I learned about little shots you need to hit around the greens, the tightness of the lies, how I'll need to utilize the bump and run more but still put spin on the ball. It's a different repertoire of shots you need to have. More -Click to read the complete article.

March 12 - From David's Masters diary comes this article entitled Great Expectations . "I sat down and talked with my Stanford coaches Conrad Ray and Philip Rowe this week about my preparations for Augusta, and it really got my mind thinking about what to expect, all the variables, how I really need to take control of my schedule. What I can do right now to prepare and focus, how things are going to be so much different from a college tournament - the crowds, the Crow's Nest, everything. It's about all the things you're used to watching on television, but now to go and live that and experience it live. I've played in front of crowds, maybe one or two thousand people at the U.S. Amateur, but to have that many or more on every hole will be something I have to be ready for.

Rowdy Dunn, who caddied for me there when I played a practice round over winter break, was talking about the noise and the galleries, how it's the best feeling in the world for a golfer, how they roar even in the practice rounds. How you can feed off the crowd when you hit good shots, how on the really good ones they'll go crazy for you. The galleries are very generous, so when things aren't going so good they'll still be behind you.

I got to visit the Crow's Nest on my trip to Augusta, got to check out where things are in the room, what the setup is. As long as I finish the week not tripping over the ladder going up to the Nest, I'll be OK. It's kind of a tight fit up there, and I'm very groggy in the morning, so I'll have to pay extra attention when I'm walking down that thing. My coaches suggested I arrange my dorm room to look like the Crow's Nest so I'd be acclimated to it. It's an interesting thought, because when Tiger was here at Stanford, he went to the basketball court at Maples Pavilion and putted on the wood surface because there weren't any greens fast enough to simulate what he would see at the Masters. It's a great story, so maybe it would be a good idea to arrange my room like the Crow's Nest, who knows?". More --- Read the complete article

March 5 - From David's Masters diary comes this article entitled The Buildup. Everybody is just so excited, and I can feel things starting to build up. But I know I'll have to keep it simple once I get to Augusta. I know there are going to be a lot of different distractions, and it will be important to control the external factors. I go to a college tournament and basically we're chaperoned around everywhere, so we just have to show up and play golf, that's it. But when I go to the Masters Tournament, all that stuff that professionals are used to, that really comes naturally for them, it will be something all new for me.

My dad has rented a house, so he'll be handling that and taking care of everybody there. I'll be staying in the Crow's Nest, of course, and I can't even describe what that's going to be like. All the tradition and history that goes with playing the Masters as an amateur is so amazing to me.

I've talked to my mom and sister about what I should wear, and we decided they will pick out my clothes each day. Actually, they decided to handle all my outfits. My sister says I'm a fashion disaster. They'll probably pick out something that matches the azaleas and all the different colors of the course. I really don't know what to expect. I'm going to put on whatever they give me.

My roommate, Quan Bui, at Stanford will be there, and it's kind of cool how that happened. He's great about following my career, so when I played in the U.S. Amateur, we had an ongoing bet and agreed if I made it to the finals and got a Masters invitation, he'd go with me. Every time I won, all he said was, 'Keep going, one more match, one more match!' I was more nervous in the semifinal match than I was in the final!

You really do think about the Masters all the time as an amateur, and as I got closer I couldn't keep it off my mind. When I came back to campus, he took me out and bought me a steak dinner. I got his ticket for him, and it was great. He might be more excited than anybody. More ---- Read the complete article.

The official Masters website has released this first article written by Stanford junior David Chung about his invitation to play in this year's event April 4-11.

Photo from Masters.com - click to enlarge

David Chung, 21, received an invitation to the 2011 Masters as the runner-up in the 2010 U.S. Amateur Championship. Chung, from Fayetteville, N.C., is a junior Communications major at Stanford University where he was an All-American choice last season. He also won the Porter Cup and Western Amateur in 2010. Chung is sharing his thoughts on his Masters debut through tournament week with Masters.com's Tom Spousta:

"You dream about getting that invitation to play in the Masters Tournament, and it's really something you strive to achieve. The moment of realization - it's almost surreal, because it's hard to believe. But when you see the letter and the paper, and the words written on it, you realize, it really is true. It was awesome.
Everybody was asking me to see the invitation. The first thing I wanted to do was show it to my dad, Chris. I wanted to honor him by showing it to him first. This whole process has been so much a part of what he was able to do for me in order to play golf. I'm really proud to have it pay off. I'm happy that I achieved what we had worked so hard for.

He and my mom, Elise, were very happy and proud. The invitation went to my parent's house. I was home for winter break, and I opened it first and showed it to them."

Click here to read the complete article at the official Masters website.

Stanford finishes 4th at the USC Invitational

2011-02-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

The Cardinal finishes 4th at the USC Invitational as summarized below led by the outstanding play of sophomore Andrew Yun. Next up will be a big tournament in Greensboro, NC at the end of March.

The USC Invitational was Feb 28 and March 1 at North Ranch CC in Westlake Village, CA. Live scoring by GolfStat is available for the event that as usual has attracted a very strong field. Some background on the tournament can be found on USC's website. The 15-team field includes Arizona State, BYU, California, Cal State Northridge, Fresno State, Michigan, Oregon, Pepperdine, San Diego, San Diego State, Stanford, UC Davis, UCLA, USC and Washington.

Stanford is represented by Andrew Yun, David Chung, Steve Ziegler, Cameron Wilson and Sihwan Kim and is hoping to bounce back from a disappointing tournament in Hawaii. Stanford won this event in 2009 when Steve Ziegler was the low individual finisher.

This link will take you to practice round videos provided by Coach Phil Rowe. I've included 2 out of the many videos of each Stanford player.

SECOND AND THIRD ROUNDS
Stanford ends in 4th place behind San Diego State, UCLA and Oregon, finishing 13 shots behind. Andrew Yun led the way tying for 5th individually as he continued his strong play this season with steady rounds of 70-70-71.

David Chung tied for 35th on rounds of 74-75-71, Cameron Wilson was tied for 44th after his 68-72-82, Steve Ziegler was tied for 51st shooting 73-80-72 and Sihwan Kim tied for 70th on rounds of 83-72-75.

As shown by the scores, golf can be a very uneven challenge as demonstrated by Cameron's brilliant first round 68 with four birdies and 3 bogies contrasted with his third round 82 including 8 bogies and a double bogie with no birdies. Only Andrew Yun found a way to play steady golf throughout.

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

FIRST ROUND
After round one Stanford is in 6th place, but only 5 shots behind the leader UCLA. Freshman Cameron Wilson led the way with a 68, followed by Andrew Yun with 70, Steve Ziegler with 73, David Chung with 74 and Sihwan Kim's 83.

Scorecards for each player can be found below:

Round One Scorecards for Stanford - click to enlarge

Photos from match play at Cypress Point vs USC - won by Stanford 4.5-1.5

2011-02-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos provided by Coach Ray from the rainy day at Cypress Point in a match won by the Cardinal over USC 4.5-1.5. At the bottom are two videos provided by Coach Rowe - click on the videos to see higher quality views on You Tube. Results of each match can be found on the previous blog posting.

Steve Ziegler & Andrew Yun on the 16th

Cameron Wilson and David Chung on the 16th

Click to enlarge

Shane Lebow & Sihwan Kim on the 16th

The 15th green - click to enlarge

Coach Phil Rowe must feel like he's home in France in this weather

Cypress Point is venue for Stanford's 4.5-1.5 match play win over USC

2011-02-19T09:44:00.000-08:00

Feb. 18, 2011

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - Against one the most breathtaking settings in all of golf, Stanford's men's golf team downed USC, 4.5 to 1.5 in a match play event held at the Cypress Point Golf Club in Pebble Beach. To see more photos from Coach Ray go to the next blog posting.

click to enlarge

Steve Ziegler, Cameron Wilson, David Chung and Sihwan won their matches while Andrew Yun halved his.

Stanford resumes its tournament schedule on Feb. 28 at the USC Invitational, held at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.

Here are the individual scores:

Andrew Yun halved with Jeffrey Kang
Steve Ziegler beat TJ Vogel 1up
Cameron Wilson beat Stewart Hagestad 6&4
David Chung beat Sam Smith 4&3
Shane Lebow lost to Ramsey Sahyoun 2&1
Sihwan Kim beat Bo DeHuff 4&3.

Stanford 4.5, USC 1.5

Here's a link to a video of Sihwan Kim's shot to 16 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2EputUC96U&feature=youtube_gdata_player.
Here's a link to a video of Steve Ziegler's great shot to 16 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emmv6BMSNYA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Steve Ziegler and Andrew Yun on the 16th tee

Univ of Hawaii at Hilo's Ari Invitational includes a very strong field

2011-02-01T06:40:00.000-08:00

Feb 4 - Final Round 3 Results:
A final round 1-under 287 total left the Cardinal in 11th place in this tournament played at the Waikoloa Kings Course on the Big Island of Hawaii --- see tourney details below. The first round 293 total put the Cardinal 15 shots behind the eventual winner, Oklahoma State, and despite a solid 2nd round 278 the final round left Stanford 28 shots behind the OSU. Complete scoring by GolfStat.com can be found at http://golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=2445.

The Cardinal was led by Andrew Yun's 75-68-69 that left him tied for 22nd. Next came David Chung with a 72-69-72 to tie for 28th, followed by Steve Ziegler with 74-71-72 tying for 51st, Cameron Wilson with 74-70-74 to tie for 59th and Graham Brockington's 73-72-77 tying for 80th.

All in all a disappointing finish for the 11th ranked Cardinal who will have something to prove in the months ahead leading to the NCAA championship. Final round scorecards are below --- click on image to enlarge.

Final round scorecards - click to enlarge

Feb 3 - Round 2 Results:
The Cardinal rebounded well after a poor first round with a 10-under par 278 total, 15 shots lower than round one's total leaving the team in 11th position, 20 shots behind OSU. Andrew Yun led the way with a 4-under 68 in a round that featured four birdies and no bogies. David Chung followed with a 69, Cameron Wilson shot 70, Steve Ziegler a 71 and Graham Brockington a 72.

The second round total tied for the 4th best of the day behind UCLA's and Oklahoma State's leading 273 total. Scorecards for each Stanford player are shown below - click on the image to enlarge:

2nd round scorecards - click to enlarge

Feb. 2, 2011 - Round 1 Results:

A very tough first round for all found Stanford a whopping 22 shots behind the leading USC team. A tournament overview is found at the bottom of this post. Below are the scorecards for each player - click on the image to enlarge:

Click to enlarge

WAIKOLOA, Haw. - Thirteen teams managed to shoot under par on the first day of the Amer Ari Invitational being contested at the Kings' Course at Waikoloa on the Big Island on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Stanford was not included in the group that tamed the Kings' Course layout, as the Cardinal were five-over on its opening round and are in 19th place, 22 strokes behing first place USC.

The Trojans shot a sizzling 17-under 271 and are seven strokes clear of Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State, who are tied for second at 278 (-10). Arizona State is in fourth place at 279 (-9).

Junior David Chung shot an even par 72 on his opening round and is tied for 42nd place on the leader board, 10 strokes behind Oregon's Daniel Miernicki, who shot an opening round 62. Miernicki has a four stroke cushion over San Jose State's Matt Hovan and USC's Jeffrey King and Sam Smith, who all carded rounds of 66 this morning.

Senior Graham Brockington is tied for 65th place after an opening round 65. Brockington had three birdies and four bogies on the front nine and shot even par on the backside.

Senior Steve Ziegler and freshman Cameron Wilson are tied for 76th after each shot two-over rounds of 72.
Sophomore Andrew Yun is tied for 88th after an opening round 75.

Jan. 31, 2011
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford's men's golf team, ranked 11th by Golfweek, will open its spring season on Wednesday at the Amer Ari Invitational, where the Cardinal will defend its team title against one of the strongest fields in the nation.

The 54-hole event gets underway Wednesday at the Waikoloa Kings' Course on the Big Island. Live scoring will be available on GolfStat.com -http://golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=2445.

Top-ranked (Golfweek/Sagarin) UCLA, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Georgia Tech and No. 7 Texas are also included in the field, along with Arizona State, Colorado, Florida State, Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii-Manoa, Oregon, Oregon State, San Francisco, San Jose State, TCU, Texas Tech, Washington, Western Washington, USC and UC Davis.
Stanford won last year's event with a 54-hole total of 866 on Mauna Lani's North Course, finishing three strokes ahead of Oregon and Washington for the team title. The Cardinal also captured team titles in 2007 and '08 in addition to last year's crown.

Knowles Family Director of Golf Conrad Ray is expected to start a lineup featuring sophomoreAndrew Yun, senior Steve Ziegler, junior David Chung, freshman Cameron Wilson and seniorGraham Brockington.

"It will be nice to be at close to full strength for the first tournament of the spring," said Ray. "It's probably the best field we will see this spring outside of the NCAA Championships and we've been lucky enough to fare pretty well over there the past couple of years. The Kings' Course is a great test of golf."

Yun was Stanford's most consistent player in four fall events, carding two top-10 finishes highlighted by his first collegiate individual title at The Prestige. He also tied for fourth at the Isleworth Intercollegiate and narrowly missed a top-10 finish at the Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Field, where he tied for 11th.

Ziegler, whose best finish in the fall was a tie for 14th at the Isleworth Collegiate, will hold down the No. 2 position in this event behind Yun after a strong qualifier.

Chung, currently ranked second on the Royal & Ancient's World Amateur Golf Rankings, finished tied for ninth at the Gifford Collegiate in his only event of the fall.

Wilson, one of two freshmen on this year's team along with Shane Lebow, was impressive in his four fall events, carding two top-10 finishes. In just his second collegiate event, the left-hander placed fifth at The Prestige at PGA West and closed the fall with a ninth place showing at the Gifford Collegiate.

Brockington will make his first start of the season.

"We have tremendous depth on this year's team," said Ray. "Five or six guys can win a tournament anytime out."

David Chung ranked #1 in world amateur rankings, Andrew Yum #22

2011-01-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

In the current world amateur rankings published by the Royal & Ancient Golf Association, David Chung maintains his #1 ranking ahead of US Amateur champion Peter Uihlein. Andrew Yun is ranked #22 on that same ranking.

In the Golf Week men's amateur rankings David is #3, Andrew #16 and Sihwan Kim #55.

David was also selected as the Carolinas Player of the Year by the Carolinas Golf Association. It will be a busy spring for David as he continues preparation for possible Walker Cup play and prepares for the upcoming Masters golf tournament on top of the Stanford tournament schedule that starts in February in Hawaii.

Historic Day for Joseph Bramlett '10 & Zack Miller '07 earning PGA Tour Cards

2010-12-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

Coach Conrad Ray called it "an awesome day for the program". Tiger Woods tweeted after Joseph Bramlett finished his round - "Amazing feat considering he sat out a whole year with wrist injury. Can't wait to play with him next season." Joseph said "I don't think I've ever heard my dad cry before" when interviewed after the final round. Two Stanford golfers have made it to the PGA Tour, Zack Miller '07 (tied for 4th) and Joseph Bramlett '10 (tied for 16th). Here is the leaderboard for the entire final stage of the PGA Tour's Qualifying School and a thumbnail on each of this year's tour qualifiers.

For the 22 year old Joseph Bramlett, success was historic given his mixed race parentage with an African American father. Joseph became the first African American in 25 years to successfully advance through the final stage of Q-school to earn a PGA tour card. He also becomes the first African American to join Woods on Tour during the Tiger era. Joseph was featured in an in depth article on the PGA Tour's website., in a NY Times article, in Golf Week, in the SJ Mercury and in this article in Golf.com.

Joseph came to Stanford after a brilliant junior career that included qualifying for the US Amateur at age 14, at the time he was the youngest to ever do so. His freshman year he won All-American honors helping Stanford to the 2007 national championship. His next two seasons were marred by wrist injuries while his senior season found him able to compete once again.

Joseph started his final round tied for 33rd, 2 shots off the cutline at 7-under par and compounded the challenge by bogeying two of his first three holes to drop to 5-under. What followed was nothing short of sensational as he reeled off 7 birdies including 5 in a row from holes 8-12. A 12-foot birdie putt on the par 5 17th moved him to 11-under and a clutch 7 footer on the tough 18th to secure his card tying for 16th. His rounds were 67-73-69-69-72-68 (T-16).

His final round scorecard is below (click to enlarge):

Final round scorecard of Joseph Bramlett featuring 7 birdies

Zack Miller '07, captained Stanford's 2007 national championship team when Bramlett was a freshman All-American. Zack has steadily built his game since graduation and enjoyed a successful Nationwide Tour season this year. Zack had rounds of 70-68-67-68-71-71 (T-6) to finish tied for 6th at 14 under par. His final round was solid with two birdies offsetting two bogies. The Golf Channel telecast captured a 40-foot birdie putt on hole 14, shown below, and his great up and down from the front bunker on the tough 18th hole where he drained a 6-foot final putt.

Zack finished 56th on the Nationwide Tour with more than $121,000 in earnings. In the 2009 PGA Q-School he made it to the final stage where he finished in 90th place to earn his Nationwide Tour card. The video below shows Zack rolling in a 40-footer on the 14th hole of his final round.

The final round recap below of the 2010 PGA Tour's Qualifiying School includes mention of Joseph Bramlett:

I had the pleasure of playing a member-golf team round with Joseph Bramlett at Stanford in 2009 and it was the finest round of golf I've ever witnessed -- Joseph was a pleasure to spend time with throughout his great round. He had 5 birdies, 2 eagles and shot a 63 despite missing a number of putts inside 12 feet. I first met Zack Miller when he was 18 having just graduated from high school. Zack was playing with my son (I was caddying) at Pasatiempo (in Santa Cruz, CA) in a US Open qualifier and he displayed a superb all-around game in successfully moving to the next round of qualifying. Equally impressive was his demeanor and engaging manner, traits that continued as I followed his progress at Stanford.

The PGA Tour's article written by Brian Wacker about Joseph Bramlett is copied below:

PGA TOUR - Brian Wacker 12/6/10

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. -- More than a decade after Tiger Woods became the first African American to win the Masters, another black golfer with mixed race parents who learned the game by emulating the swing of his father in a mirror and later matriculated at Stanford University cut his own little slice of history.

Round 6 Scores
Meet the 29 grads
Round 6 Notebook
Mayfair medals
Video Highlights

Monday, Joseph Bramlett became the first African American in 25 years to successfully advance through the final stage of q-school to earn a PGA TOUR card for 2011. He also becomes the first African American to join Woods on TOUR during the Woods era.

The parallels to Woods and the social significance of the moment are striking. They also weren't lost on Bramlett, his father Marlo and certainly not on Adrian Stills, previously the last black man to make it to the TOUR this route.

"I don't think I've ever heard my dad cry before," said Bramlett, who finished in a tie for 16th at 11 under at Orange County National.

"It's been too long. To finally end that 25-year drought means the world to me, my family and everyone who has helped me along the way. It's an honor, it truly is an honor. Like I've said before, it's been a long time. I'm just thrilled to see it start to change."

And no one helped Bramlett get to where he is today more than his dad.

As a young boy, Bramlett kept a club in his crib and by three years old he was hitting golf balls with his dad in a soccer field near their house in Saratoga, Calif.

Later, he would become the youngest player at the time to qualify for the U.S. Amateur at age 14. Eventually, Bramlett helped Stanford win the NCAA men's team title in 2007 before being sidelined for nearly two years by two wrist injuries.

Earlier this year, Bramlett graduated from Stanford (in just under four years, no less) and the next day was at Pebble Beach playing practice rounds for the U.S. Open with Woods, who he had a poster of hanging in his room as a child.

Sound familiar?

Tiger was impressed

Tiger Woods took notice of Jospeh Bramlett's performance, congratulating the soon-to-be rookie on making it through q-school via Twitter. Click here for more.

Monday, Woods tweeted: "Congrats to Joe Bramlett for making it through q-school. Amazing feat considering he sat out a whole year with wrist injury. Can't wait to play with him next season."

But Woods wasn't the only one watching.

Up the West Coast of Florida, Stills arrived home from his job as the head professional at the Osceola Municipal Golf Course in Pensacola early on Monday, eagerly tracking Bramlett's progress on his laptop while watching it unfold on television.

Stills soaked in every second of the moment with "a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment."

"I'm not an overly religious person, but I couldn't believe the timing of it being 25 years," Stills said. "I've been in that situation and shot 68 the last day of q-school with the heat on and that today was some good stuff."

Stills' playing career might not have amounted to much -- he spent just one year on TOUR -- but he said the game of golf had given him an awful lot. He's returned the favor by more than 40 of years of involvement, much of which has centered on teaching and the The First Tee program.

"The game lends itself to so many good things, it's important to have another African American out there," said Stills, who was inspired by players like Lee Elder and Calvin Peete, much the way Bramlett was influenced by Woods.

"I don't know why it's taken this long other than it's a byproduct of interest in the game, a byproduct of junior programs not lending themselves to minorities. But I think with programs like The First Tee for the last 10-15 years we're going to start to see a transition.

"I hope this starts another trend because it's important to our community."

Bramlett's father agrees.

"There are some men coming up that are exceptional players that will make it," Marlo Bramlett said. "But hopefully we look at it one day we look at this deal as 156 golfers, and not 156 golfers and one African-American and three of Asian descent, just 156 players.

"I hope we get there, I really do."

Early Monday evening, Stills hadn't yet heard from Bramlett, though he said he might because someone had asked for his cell phone number in case Bramlett wanted to call.

"What I'd like to say to him is you've proven you have the merit to be out there," Stills said. "Now do what you know how to do on that big stage."

Bramlett, like Stills, will finally get that opportunity.

Steve Ziegler ties for 12th in prestigious field of All-Americans

2010-11-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

click to enlarge

Senior Steve Ziegler finished in a tie for 12th in an elite tournament of college All-Americans played in El Paso. The event is known as the Western Refining College All-American Golf Classic and is considered one of the finest college events of the year. Past champions include Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, Notah Begay and Matt Kuchar.

Steve had rounds of 73-68-68 in the event with the scoreboard included below --- click to enlarge the image. The field included the current US Amateur champion, the current NCAA champion and 29 other top collegiate players from throughout the country.

The event was played at the El Paso Country Club.

Leaderboard - click to enlarge

With a field that includes the U.S. Amateur champion, the NCAA champion and the returning event champion, the 2010 Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic looks to have its deepest field ever when it begins play this weekend at El Paso Country Club.

Thirty-two of the nation’s premier collegiate golfers are headed to El Paso this weekend for the 36th edition of the tournament that features returning champion Hunter Hamrick of Alabama, 2010 U.S. Amateur Champion Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State) and 2010 NCAA Champion Scott Langley (Illinois).
“This is an extraordinary field of collegiate golfers,” said Gary Hanson, tournament chairman. “Each year we strive to make this event better and better, but nothing makes the tournament better than a strong field of competitors. The Sun Bowl and our volunteers create a top quality event for the best college golfers in the world.”
The field includes seven of the top 11 amateur golfers in the world, according to the R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings – Oklahoma State’s Uihlein and Kevin Tway, Illinois’ Langley, Washington’s Chris Williams, Augusta State’s Patrick Reed, and Georgia’s Russell Henley and Harris English.
Last season, the Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic ranked as the No. 1 tournament in the country for the sixth consecutive season, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
“Western Refining has done a great deal to take the nation’s No. 1 golf tournament to the next level,” said Bernie Olivas, Sun Bowl Association Executive Director. “We could not put on a tournament of this magnitude without the support of Western Refining. It has become a true ev

ent that the nation’s best want to attend. It could not be more evident that with the number and quality of competitors in this year’s field.”

Throughout the years, many Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic competitors have gone on to pursue successful careers in the Professional Golfers’ Association of America and on the PGA Tour. Some of the past champions include Ricky Barnes (2000), Notah Begay (1994), David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999), Davis Love III (1984), Chris Nallen (2003), Jerry Pate (1974), Nicholas Thompson (2004) and Tiger Woods (1995).
Alumni of the Golf Classic have gone on to earn more than $1.3 billion and win 540 events on the PGA Tour. In all, 139 colleges and universities have participated in the tournament, raising more than $670,000 in scholarship money for the participating institutions.

Each university is awarded a $1,000 scholarship if a golfer from that school competes in the tournament.

Cardinal signs 3 top juniors to National Letters of Intent

2010-11-17T06:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the official press release about Stanford 2011-12 incoming freshman recruits -- more about the three below the press release.

STANFORD, Calif. - The Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf, Conrad Ray, has announced the signing of three talented high school seniors, Patrick Grimes, Marcel Puyat and Patrick Rodgers. All three players will join the Cardinal next fall as part of the Stanford Class of 2015.

Grimes, who grew up locally in Palo Alto and attends Menlo School in Atherton, CA, is familiar with The Farm. An annual participant in the Stanford Summer Golf Camps, he arrives as a highly rated Northern Californian junior prospect having won the 2008 AJGA Junior All-Star tournament at Marshallia Ranch, the 2008 AJGA Trader Joe’s Junior Championship played at the Castlewood Country Club - Hill Course, and the 2010 Mayacoba Junior Classic. Other notable performances include the 2010 Central Coast Section title on his way to a sixth place finish at the CIF State Championships in Santa Maria. semi-finalist showing in the 2010 San Francisco City Championship, 2nd place in the 2010 Palo Alto City Championship and 8^th in the 2010 Silicon Valley Amateur.

Puyat, resident of Indio, CA will graduate from La Quinta High School. He was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, moved to The States in 2007 and worked his way to a current ranking of 27th in the high school class of 2011 by Golfweek / Sagarin. In 2009 he won his USGA US Men’s Amateur Championship Sectional Qualifier held at Avila Golf Club in Tampa and then went on to reach the round of 16 in the US Men’s Amateur Championships held at Southern Hills Country Club and Cedar Ridge Golf Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Likewise, he reached the round of 16 in the 2009 USGA Junior Amateur Championship held over the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey after winning the sectional qualifier at Hideout Golf Club, Naples, Florida. Puyat was the medalist in both the Junior and Amateur in 2009. Alongside his US tournament record, he joins the Cardinal with many international tournament accolades on his impressive resume.

Rodgers, from Avon, IN and Avon High School is currently ranked 7^th in the high school class of 2010 by Golfweek / Sagarin and has stood out from his class in both golfing and academic performance. Rodgers is a two-time winner and defending State High School Champion in Indiana. He is a two-time HP Scholastic All-American in 2009 and 2010. Rodgers was named first team Rolex Junior All-American in 2009 and 2010 and Honorable mention in 2008. This recognition was behind the strength of nine top-10 finishes in his career on the AJGA Tour. Rodgers won his first AJGA event at The SAP Junior Open in 2009. He also was a match play qualifier in the USGA Junior Championship in 2008 and 2009 and competitor in the 2010 US Amateur. Most impressively, Rodgers is ranked No. 1 in his class of 582 at Avon High School.

Coach Conrad Ray’s thoughts on the signee’s “The 2011 recruiting class that we have been able to put together is very exciting for the future of Stanford Golf. All three players bring so much to the table in terms of their academic and athletic prowess as well as the intangibles like work ethic and personality. We believe that this class will go down as one of the best we have had come to Stanford in a long time.”

Grimes, Puyat and Rodgers will join the team in fall of 2011.

All three played in the top junior circuit run by the AJGA, although Grimes was less active on that tour. Here are their summary rankings and top results as reported by AJGA:

Click to enlarge - Patrick Grimes AJGA summary

Macel Puyat - click to enlarge AJGA Summary

Click to enlarge Patrick Rodgers AJGA overview

The YouTube video below of the 2010 Illinois High School Championship includes an excellent interview of Patrick Rodgers that begins in the middle of the video - Patrick won shooting a 67-64.

The funny YouTube video below shows Patrick Grimes receiving golf lessons from a friend.

Stanford finishes 2nd in the Gifford Collegiate at CordeValle

2010-11-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

CordeValle GC in San Martin, CA

The Gifford Collegiate background can be found below as the most recent results will be posted first after each round. CordeValle, the PGA Tour caliber host course, is located about 45 miles from the Stanford campus.

ROUND THREE SUMMARY - Stanford couldn't hold off surging UCLA over the final 6 holes finishing 2nd in the tournament despite leading by 11 strokes going into the final round. UCLA ended up picking up 24 shots on the Cardinal in round 3 to win the event by 13 strokes.

The story was told over the final 6 holes with Stanford leading by 5 shots. Over the last 6 holes the Cardinal was 16-over par collectively while UCLA was 2-under par, a difference of 18 shots. Of special note was the final stretch by UCLA's Figueriedo finishing with 5 birdies and one bogie over the last 6 holes leading to his 66.

The Cardinal was led in the 3rd round by a solid 2-under 69 from frosh Cameron Wilson who finished with another top ten (77-70-69) in his excellent season thus far. Next best on the day was Andrew Yun's 73 on his way to a 15th place finish (74-71-73). Sihwan Kim had a solid tournament finishing 6th overall after rounds of 71-68-74. David Chung, in his first tourney of the year, finished tied for 9th despite a disappointing final day (69-68-79). Steve Ziegler finished tied for 30th (77-71-76) as he was on his way to a fine 3rd round but finished 6-over on his final 6 holes. Freshman Shane Lebow ended in 74th with rounds of 82-78-83.

Complete final round scoring can be found below.

3rd round scorecards - click to enlarge

Complete event scoring can be found here. Now it's time off as the fall season has ended - the next event will be in early February on the island of Hawaii at the Mauna Lani Resort North course. My guess is that this disappointing ending to the fall season will find the Cardinal that much hungrier to excel in the all important spring championship season. Everyone will know exactly what they need to do to improve individually and as a team. Watch out UCLA and the rest of the collegiate golfing world.

ROUND TWO SUMMARY - Stanford charged into the 2nd round lead by 12 shots over #1 ranked UCLA improving its scoring 20 strokes from round 1. Leading the way with a pair of 3-under 68s were David Chung (69-68 2nd place individually) and Sihwan Kim (71-68 3rd place). David and Sihwan each had 4 birdies and one bogie on the day.

Strong 2nd round play by Cameron Wilson (77-70 T19), Andrew Yun (74-71 T11) and Steve Ziegler (77-71 T24) completed the 5 players whose scores counted towards team play. Freshman Shane Lebow also improved in round 2 (82-78 75th).

High fives all around after Andrew Yun's eagle on 18

David Chung finishes with birdie to cap off a great 68

It was a day of contrasts from round one as the team was 7-under (lowest of the day) vs. 13-over on day one, recorded 19 birdies vs 10 in round 1, had 5 players even or under par vs. 2 on round 1, and the team played the par 5 3rd hole 3-under vs. 9-over on round 1. Playing together, Andrew Yun eagled the 18th while David Chung birdied the par 5 finishing hole.

The 2nd day scorecards are found below --- click to enlarge the image.

Click to enlarge round 2 scorecards

ROUND ONE SUMMARY - The Cardinal is in 2nd place after the first round, one stroke behind #1 ranked UCLA. Stanford was led by junior David Chung's 2-under 69, a round that has him in 2nd place individually, as his play was highlighted by a dramatic eagle 3 on the 18th hole. Senior Sihwan Kim, a previous winner of this event in 2007 and a runner-up last year, shot a solid 71 putting him in 3rd place individually.

Next was Andrew Yun's 74, Steve Ziegler and Cameron Wilson's 77's and Shane Lebow's 82. The best 5 out of 6 scores count leaving the Cardinal 13-over par as scores were high on this tough CordeValle course that is rated at 75.3 with a 144 slope. The par 5 third hole proved to be the toughest challenge for the team as the team collectively had one par, two bogies, two double bogies and one triple bogey on this hole - the team was 9-over par on this one hole. Only a total of 10 birdies and 1 eagle were recorded by the team.

First round scorecards can be found below --- click on the image to enlarge.

Click to enlarge 1st round scorecards

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND:

Vineyards next to CordeValle

The 6-man team is set for the upcoming Gifford Collegiate tournament being played nearby at CordeValle in San Martin, CA Nov 8-10. This event will mark the 2010 debut of Stanford's All-American and US Amateur runner-up David Chung, who just returned from Buenos Aires and the World Amateur where he represented the US on its 3-person team. CordeValle GC was the site of a recent PGA Tour event won by Rocco Mediate. Live tournament scoring by GolfStat is available. See practice round videos below.

The team includes Andrew Yun, David Chung, Steve Ziegler, Cameron Wilson, Sihwan Kim and Shane Lebow. The field of 12 teams includes 5 teams ranked in Golf Week's top 25 including #1 UCLA and #6 Augusta State. Stanford is ranked #16 after it's first 3 tournaments played without top ranked All-American David Chung who returns from his recent play representing the US in the World Amateur in Buenos Aires. The format for the event is unusual in that 6 players for each team compete with the 5 low scores each round counting towards the team score. Typically 5 players compete with 4 scores counting.

During the practice round on Sunday, Nov 7, light rain moved in so the course should be playing longer with the softer conditions. The weather is expected to clear during the tournament.

"Both as a team and for each individual player, this is the last chance we'll get to put it on show in 2010" Coach Ray said to his men following a team workout earlier this week; "it's time to make a statement ahead of the spring Championship season that is really not far away now". Videos from the practice round are included below:

Team set for CordeValle Tourney & David Chung returns from World Amateur

2010-11-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

CordeValle GC in San Martin, CA

The 6-man team is set for the upcoming Gifford Collegiate tournament being played nearby at CordeValle in San Martin, CA. This event will mark the 2010 debut of Stanford's All-American and US Amateur runner-up David Chung, who just returned from Buenos Aires and the World Amateur where he represented the US on its 3-person team. CordeValle GC was the site of a recent PGA Tour event won by Rocco Mediate. Live tournament scoring by GolfStat is available.

The 6-man team includes Andrew Yun, David Chung, Steve Ziegler, Cameron Wilson, Sihwan Kim and Shane Lebow. The team selection came as a result of a two-round qualifier and 3 coaches selections. Here are the results of the recent qualifier:

1. Sihwan Kim - 74-72 = 146
2. Andrew Yun 71-76 = 147
3. Cameron Wilson 73-75 = 148
3. Shane Lebow 75-73 = 148
5. Steve Ziegler 76-73 = 149
6. Graham Brockington 75-76 = 151
7. Steven Kearney 78-76 = 154
8. Andre DeDecker 75-80 = 155
9. Wilson Bowen 76-82 = 158

All-American David Chung makes his 2010 debut -- David Chung did not compete as he was returning from the World Amateur being played in Buenos Aires where he helped the US finish in 3rd place behind France and Denmark. David tied for 9th individually with rounds of 73-70-73 in tough conditions with pouring rain in much of the tournament. Congratulations David on your selection and top play in this outstanding event. Here are complete scores from the World Amateur. | The event's website can be found here. | Golf Week had excellent coverage of the event and David's outstanding 2nd round in pouring rain was chronicled in this article.

USGA photo in Golf Week's article about World Amateur

Stanford finishes tied for 3rd at Isleworth Collegiate in Florida

2010-10-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

Stanford finishes tied for 3rd against one of the strongest fields in college golf in the Isleworth Collegiate, played at the home of Tiger Woods and many other PGA professionals, held Oct 24-26 in Windermere, Florida. One of the highlights of this trip was once again enjoying the hospitality and time with Tiger Woods --- on his blog after the event Tiger shared "I recently hosted the Stanford men's golf team for a barbecue at my house. They were in town to play in the Isleworth Invitational, and it's become an annual event. It's great to have the guys around and let them basically ask questions. It's a lot of fun from both sides."

See details below in the Round 3 Summary.

Stanford sent a team with freshmen Cameron Wilson and Shane Lebow, sophomore Andrew Yun and two seniors Steve Ziegler and Sihwan Kim. #1 player David Chung is off to Buenos Aires for the World Amateur and unavailable this week. This excellent tournament website tracks the tournament well. Real-time scoring by GolfStat was available as well.

ROUND 1 SUMMARY - Stanford tied for first after round 1 with a 2-over 290 total. Andrew Yun and Sihwan Kim led the way with 1-under 70, Cameron Wilson has a 73, Steve Ziegler a 75 and Shane Lebow an 8l. First round scorecards are shown below - click to enlarge:

First round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 2 SUMMARY - Stanford moved back to a tie for 2nd after two rounds, 4 strokes behind Alabama. Playing in windy conditions, the Cardinal was led by Andrew Yun who's in 2nd individually with rounds of 71-70. Ziegler fired a 1-under 71 (75-71), Wilson a 77 (73-77), Kim a 79 (71-79) and Lebow again had an 81 (81-81). Second round scorecards are below - click on the image to enlarge.

Second round scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 3 SUMMARY - Playing in high winds with scores higher for almost everyone in the field, Stanford finished with a 3rd day total of 307, ending up 10 strokes behind the winner, Alabama.

Stanford was led once again by Andrew Yun who finished 4th individually for another fine tournament after rounds of 71-70-76. Ziegler had rounds of 75-71-76 (T14), Wilson shot 73-77-76 (T26), Kim shot 71-79-79 (T37) and freshman Lebow shot 81-81-84 (T72). Complete scorecards for the third round are round below - click on the image to enlarge.

3rd round scorecards - click to enlarge

Assistant Coach Phil Rowe provides a series of 21 short videos of team members practicing under windy conditions, including this drive by Andrew Yun below:

Additional videos of the team playing holes at Isleworth can be found at this playlist - the videos can be located at the bottom of the screen and one video follows another automatically.

Cameron Wilson plays hole #2 in the video below:

Qualifying is underway for the Isleworth Collegiate

2010-10-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

Isleworth CC near Orlando, Florida

Team qualifying has been completed for three spots to go to the Isleworth Collegiate Oct 24-26 near Orlando, Florida. Andrew Yun and Cameron Wilson are exempt from qualifying and will be traveling based on their strong play at the Prestige where they finished 1st and 5th respectively. There will be one coaches pick plus the two lowest qualifiers traveling.

Based on the qualifying results below Steve Ziegler and Shane Lebow will be traveling and the coach's pick is senior Sihwan Kim.

David Chung is not available as he is off to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to play as part of the US World Amateur team for the Eisenhower Trophy --- congrats to David.

After 9-hole and 12-hole qualifying rounds played at the Seibel Varsity Training Center plus a round at famed San Francisco Golf Club here are the final standings:

1. Andrew Yun 35+45+68 = 148 Exempt
2. Steve Ziegler 34+43+74 = 151 Qualified
3. Cameron Wilson 35+46+71 = 152 Exempt
4. Shane Lebow 35+46+73 = 154 Qualified
T5. Sihwan Kim 34+46+76 = 156 Coach's Pick
T5. Andre De Decker 34++79 = 156
7. Steven Kearney 34+50+75 = 159
8. Graham Brockington 36+47+79 = 162
9. Wilson Bown 34+46+83 = 163
N/A - David Chung 32+44 (left for World Amateur) = 76

Cardinal ties for 2nd and Andrew Yun 1st in the Prestige at PGA West

2010-10-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

Stanford finishes 2nd at the Prestige tournament held in La Quinta at the PGA West Stadium Course. Sophomore Andrew Yun wins the individual event by 6 shots as he shot a brilliant 7-under, bogie-free, 65 final round, after opening rounds of 70-69. Finishing in 5th individually was freshman Cameron Wilson with rounds of 67-70-76, while Steve Ziegler had rounds of 79-74-74 to finish tied for 47th. Freshman Shane Lebow had rounds of 81-68-77 to tie for 43rd and Steven Kearney finished tied for 67th with rounds of 78-76-80. Graham Brockington playing as an individual had rounds of 87-81-76 to tie for 77th.

Congrats to Andrew for his great win, as well as to Cameron for his top 5 finish. C omplete scoring by GolfStat. "It was neat to see Andrew Yun get first tourney win," Stanford coach Conrad Ray said. "He played a flawless final round with final round pins on the Stadium Course. Hats off to him." After the event Andrew was named national player of the week by Golf Week.

As a team, the Cardinal finished in a tie for second after a final round of 4-over-par 292. California took the team title with a three-day total of even-par 864. Stanford and Washington tied for second, three strokes back.

"It was a good tournament for us all things considered," said Ray. "Everyone contributed and with two other freshmen in the lineup, tying for second is a nice week."

Yun played sensational golf all weekend, making 15 birdies and just three bogies on the PGA West Stadium Course. His final round was the best of the day as he separated himself from the rest of the field.
Final round scorecards for all team players can be found below -- click to enlarge.

Final round scorecards for all players - click to enlarge

SECOND ROUND RECAP:
With the tournament's lowest round, Stanford climbed into a first place tie with Cal riding their young players to a 7-under 281 2nd round total. Freshman Shane Lebow rebounded with a 4-under 68 and fellow frosh Cameron Wilson had 70 (he's in 2nd individually with 67-70) and sophomore Andrew Yun is tied for 3rd overall with rounds of 70-69. Senior Steve Ziegler birdied his last hole to shoot 74 and Steven Kearney had a 76. C omplete scoring by GolfStat.

The afternoon round was played in near 100 degree weather with light winds. A 7:30 am start in the final round will cool off the field in a day when Stanford and Cal will go head-to-head. Totals are Wilson (67-70), Yun (70-69), Lebow (81-68), Ziegler (79-74) and Kearney (78-76). Playing as an individual, Graham Brockington had rounds of 87-81.

Second round scorecards for all team players can be found below --- click to enlarge.

2nd round scorecards --- click to enlarge

FIRST ROUND RECAP:
Freshman Cameron Wilson led the way in the first round as he was 1st individually with his 5-under 67 at the Prestige being played at famed the famed PGA West Stadium Course in La Quinta, CA. Stanford is tied for 3rd in this event which it's hosting with UC Davis. Other Stanford scores in the first round were Andrew Yun's 70, Steven Kearney's 78, Steve Ziegler's 79 and freshman Shane Lebow's 81. Complete scoring by GolfStat.

Cameron's round featured 8 birdies on the way to nines of 33 & 34 as can be seen below on his scorecard. Andrew's solid 2-under round included 4 birdies and two bogies. Steven's 78 included two double bogies and a triple bogies to offset his 3 birdies. The back nine proved the undoing for both Steve Ziegler and Shane Lebow who shot 41 and 42 respectively.

Missing from the team this week are Sihwan Kim who has been competing in the Asian Amateur in Japan and #1 player David Chung who is unavailable.

First round hole-by-hole scoring by Stanford - click to enlarge

Swing videos from a practice round are below.

Below is a slide show from the practice round.

Qualifying after 4 rounds for the Prestige at PGA West

2010-09-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

PGA West at La Quinta

Qualifying for the 2nd event, the Prestige hosted by Stanford and played at PGA West in La Quinta, is underway beginning with an early morning round at the Stanford golf course. A second round of 14 holes was played at the Seibel Varsity Training Center (SVTC) and a third round was played at the excellent California Golf Club (7,216 yards, par 72) in San Bruno. The fourth round was played at Stanford on Saturday, 10/2. Here are the results thus far:

David Chung 68-48-72-72 = 260
Andrew Yun 69-49-71-75 = 264
Shane Lebow 67-52-74-72 = 265
Sihwan Kim 74-54-66-71 = 265
Steven Kearney 70-49-76-70 = 265
Steve Ziegler 74-49-78-66 = 267
Graham Brockington 69-51-75-73 = 268
Cameron Wilson 73-51-77-68 = 269
Wilson Bowen 73-51-77-82 = 283
Andre De Decker 78-51-81-84 = 294

Ziegler tees off on 14 on way to a 4-under 66 at Stanford

Below are short videos taken by Ass't Coach Phil Rowe of all players qualifying at the SVTC on 9/27 - to see a larger videos click on the center of the video which will take you to YouTube. Most of the shots are 190-215 yard iron shots --- captains of player names and description of shots can be seen by mousing over the bottom floating images off the videos.

Sihwan's 66 shows he's finding his game again. Below are three short videos from his excellent round at California Golf Club on 9/29.

We'll update on additional tournament qualifying as it occurs!

Stanford ties for 9th in first tournament at Olympia Fields

2010-09-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

The 2010-11 tournament season started at the famed North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club outside Chicago. Olympia Fields North hosted the 2003 US Open plus three other majors and the event features a strong field --- the Cardinal have been picked at #4 in pre-season rankings by Golf Week.

Stanford sent a young team into action led by senior Steve Ziegler, junior Wilson Bowen, sophomores Andrew Yun and Steven Kearney and freshman Cameron Wilson. All-Americans David Chung (ranked #2 individually among collegians) and Sihwan Kim will be sitting this event out giving the younger Cardinals a chance to gain valuable experience. The temporary traveling coach will be 4-time All-American Rob Grube subbing for Coach Ray who remains in Palo Alto to await the imminent birth of his 2nd child.

ROUND TWO AND THREE SCORING:
Stanford finishes in a tie for 9th with an 870 total in this first tournament won by Florida with its 845 total. Andrew Yun led the way tying for 11th at 213 total with rounds of 69-68-76, 9 strokes behind tournament winner Peter Uihlein (recent US Amateur champion). Andrew's final round was marred by a 4-over 8 on the 4th hole. Next was Steve Ziegler's 216 total with rounds of 74-72-70 to tie for 24th. Cameron Wilson was at 219 to tie for 36th shooting 71-74-74, Steven Kearney at 223 tying for 51st with 73-75-75 while Illinois native Wilson Bowen shot 227 tying for 66th with 75-74-78.

No doubt the tournament provided valuable experience for frosh Wilson and for Kearney and Bowen who saw limited action last year. Missing from the squad was #2 ranked and recent US Amateur runner-up David Chung and two-time All-American senior Sihwan Kim. Final round hole-by-hole scoring can be found below:

3rd round scoring - click to enlarge

ROUND ONE SCORING:
The team is in 8th place after a 7 over par 287 total, 7 strokes behind Florida. Andrew Yun was 1-under at 69, Cameron Wilson had a 70, Steven Kearney a 73, Steve Ziegler a 74 and Wilson Bowen a 75. Of note Andrew fired a 3-under 32 on the back nine while Steven was 3 under after 13 before struggling over the last 5 holes. Cameron, a freshman, had a solid start to his college career with a steady round including one birdie and two bogies. Hole by hole scoring can be found below:

Click to enlarge for Stanford's round 1 hole by hole scoring

Complete live scoring can be found at http://golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=2298. Background info on the tournament can be found at http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/091410aac.html and it's included below.

BACKGROUND STORY - Olympia Fields, Ill. - In quick order, the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational has become one of the elite tournaments in collegiate golf. The 2010 event, the fifth annual, is no exception. Defending NCAA team champion Augusta State and NCAA individual champion Scott Langley of Illinois highlight an extremely strong field at this weekend's tournament, which features a 54-hole format (18 holes each day) and runs from Sept. 17-19 at the historic Olympia Fields Country Club.

The tournament already has history with 2007 champion Rickie Fowler of Oklahoma State being named to the United States Ryder Cup team this fall. Not only does it include the NCAA champions, but runner-up Oklahoma State, semifinalist Florida State and nine teams overall who reached the 30-team NCAA finals in June.

"The past fields have been strong, but this one has a lot of good amateurs in it and the teams are impressive as well," said Illinois head coach Mike Small.

The top three teams in the Golf World/Nike Coaches poll will be there and 10 of the top 20 teams in the nation overall -- #1 Oklahoma State, #2 Stanford, #3 Augusta State, #8 Florida, #11 Texas, #12 Arizona State, #13 Florida State, #15 Alabama, #16 Illinois and #19 Duke. California, the first team also receiving votes in the top 25 poll, will also compete at Olympia Fields this weekend. The rest of the field consists of the Big Ten foes Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State and Purdue.

Recently, Golfweek released its list of the top 30 collegiate players and six of the top nine will be at Olympia Fields, including three from top-ranked Oklahoma State -- 1 Peter Uihlein of Oklahoma State; #4 Langley, #5 Kevin Tway of Oklahoma State; #6 Morgan Hoffman of Oklahoma State; #7 Bud Cauley of Alabama; and #9 Patrick Reed of Augusta State. Stanford's David Chung, ranked #2, is not competing this week for the Cardinal.

Chung goes long to achieve major boost in his short game

2010-09-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Ron Kroichick, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Ted S. Warren AP at US Amateur

Stanford coach Conrad Ray might as well have asked David Chung to stand on his head on the No. 1 tee, walk backward down the fairway and wear a blindfold as he attempted to knock putts into the hole.

Use a long putter? Chung responded the way any self-respecting, image-conscious college golfer would - he wondered if his coach was out of his freakin' mind.

"Heck no, I don't want to be seen with that," Chung said, recalling his initial reaction. "I was embarrassed, because you associate a long putter with a 60-year-old guy with the yips. ... Once you get over the mental hurdle, having everyone rib you over using it, you realize anything that gets the ball in the hole faster is good."

This offers an instructive starting point in the story of Chung's wondrous summer of 2010. He won two prestigious amateur tournaments, the Western Amateur and the Porter Cup, and he reached the finals in the most prestigious event of all, last month's US Amateur outside Tacoma, Wash.

Chung's torrid run catapulted him into another realm. He will begin his junior season this week as the No. 2 college player in the nation, according to GolfWorld magazine, and he can expect to receive invitations to play in the Masters and U.S. Open next year, thanks to his runner-up finish in the U.S. Amateur.

It would be misleading to say all this stemmed from last year's decision to breathe deeply, shun vanity and try the long putter. But it also would be fair to call Ray's suggestion, and Chung's ultimate willingness to experiment, a landmark moment in Chung's evolution as a golfer.

Need for change

He always had been a good ball striker, but his putting occasionally abandoned him. His exasperation grew after the final round at the NCAA championships in May 2009, at the end of his freshman year, when he reached nearly every green in regulation and still shot 73.

Chung also struggled with a stiff back, and Ray knew the long putter would help in that regard. This all made sense to Chung, but he also heard the whispers once he started using it - other players asking if he had "serious problems," suggesting long putters should be banned, derisively saying they were for "old people."

It reached the point that Chung didn't want to bring the putter onto the practice green, where he might be spotted. Then he won his second tournament, the 2009 North & South Amateur, and suddenly some good-natured grief became a small impediment.

"It really gives you a feel for the pendulum stroke and straight lines," said Ray, who used a long putter during his days playing professionally. "I just encouraged David to give it a fair shake. Is it outside the box for most college kids? For sure. But if you can figure it out and get used to it, it's a superior way to putt."

Chung stitched together a strong sophomore season with his new putting style, pocketing four top-10 finishes and posting a team-best scoring average of 71.3. He was named Stanford's most valuable player and earned third-team All-America honors.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/15/SPEC1FBH49.DTL#ixzz0zh96xJhc

Team Qualifying Scores for First Tournament!

2010-09-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

The 2010-11 team completed qualifying to determine the five players for the first tournament in Chicago, to be played at Olympia Fields CC Sept 17-19, site of the 2003 US Open and 3 other major championships. The team will be Andrew Yun, Steve Ziegler, Wilson Bowen, Steven Kearney and Cameron Wilson.

A total of four qualifying rounds were played, the first two at Stanford, the 3rd at highly ranked Pasatiempo GC in Santa Cruz and the 4th at old course at Half Moon Bay GC on the coast.

Here are the final qualifying scores:

Andrew Yun (So) - 70, 66, 66, 76 - 278
Steve Ziegler (Sr) - 68, 69, 72, 71 - 280
Wilson Bowen (Jr) - 71, 67, 74, 73 - 285
Steven Kearney (So) - 68, 69, 73, 76 - 286
Cameron Wilson (Fr) - 69, 73, 71, 78 - 291
Graham Brockington (Sr) - 78, 69, 70, 78 - 295
Andre DeDecker (So) - 70, 70, 78, 77 - 295
Shane Lebow (Fr) - 78, 72, 70, 77 - 297
Sihwan Kim (Sr) - 74, 78, 80, 77 - 309
David Chung (Jr) - 68, 61, 73, No Card --- -- yes that's a 61, tying Rob Grube's Stanford course record.

The top 5 qualifiers will be competing at Olympia Fields. The acting coach for the team is 4-time All-American Rob Grube. Coach Conrad Ray is staying in the Bay Area as he and his wife are expecting their second child any day now.

The Birdies are flying --- Tweets bring latest updates on Stanford Men's Golf

2010-09-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

You can now get the latest updates on Stanford men's Golf via Twitter. Go to http://twitter.com/StanfordMgolf and sign up to follow Cardinal updates throughout the year.

No doubt the birdies will be flying this year for the #2 ranked men's team.