Monday, September 27, 2010

Qualifying after 4 rounds for the Prestige at PGA West

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!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Stanford ties for 9th in first tournament at Olympia Fields

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 STORYOlympia 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. 

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Chung goes long to achieve major boost in his short game



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

Monday, September 13, 2010

Team Qualifying Scores for First Tournament!


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.

Friday, September 10, 2010

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

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.