Cardinal finishes 2nd at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate in Dallas as 6 players compete

 Stanford Daily Recap | Live Scoring | Royal Oaks CC | Itinerary

The Royal Oaks Invitational offers new challenges to the 12th ranked Cardinal team.  First, it's a new

Freshman Viraat Badhwar

venue for the team, played on an exclusive private course in Dallas, Texas in an event hosted by the 19th ranked Baylor team.  Second, the format includes 6 players competing for 5 low scores each round.  Third, the first day will include 36 holes in this two-day event.  Fourth the lineup includes for the first time, highly touted freshman Viraat Badhwar from Australia, who has been dealing with a wrist injury that has kept him from competing until now.

The 12-team field includes #3 Texas A & M, #5 Oklahoma State, #13 Oklahoma, #16 New Mexico as well as SMU, Iowa, and Ohio State.  Stanford's team includes Cameron Wilson, Patrick Rodgers, David Boote, Patrick Grimes and freshmen Jim Liu and Viraat Badhwar.

FINAL RESULTS: 
Thanks to a sparkling final round 65 (and 5-under 31 on his final 9) by Patrick Rodgers, Stanford finished in 2nd place, 16 strokes behind Oklahoma State.  See the final team standings below:

Final team standings - click to enlarge

Cameron Wilson (69-67-70 208) and Patrick Rodgers (70-71-65 208) tied for 8th at 7-under par 206, David Boote (70-67-71 208) continued his fine play tying for 13th at 208, freshman Jim Liu (68-72-73 213) tied for 29th after another good showing, Patrick Grimes (72-71-71 214) had a solid event as he tied for 32nd while freshman Viraat Badhwar 72-70-73 215) in his collegiate debut contributed with a 215 total to tie for 37th.

Patrick's standout final round 65 included 8 birdies and 2 bogies.  Cameron completed his excellent fall season with another top 10 result leading to his team leading 70.33/round stroke average.  See full individual and team results for the fall season.  

Final round scorecards are included below - click to enlarge:

It was an encouraging event showing that Stanford has good depth to draw on when the spring season gets underway in Hawaii. 

ROUND 1 & 2 RESULTS:

Stanford sits in 2nd place, 6 shots behind Oklahoma State heading into the final round today. Weather forecast is for highs near 80 with winds from 10-20 mph.

Team standings after round 2 - click to enlarge

Scoring was low at Royal Oaks on day one as Stanford was led by Cameron Wilson who is tied for 3rd on rounds of 69-67.  Cameron sits 5 strokes behind leader Kevin Dougherty from Oklahoma State who fired a 63 in his first round.

David Boote is tied for 6th with 70-67, Patrick Rodgers on rounds of 70-71 is tied for 26th, freshman Viraat Badhwar is next tied for 33rd with 72-70 and Patrick Grimes is tied for 37th with 72-71. Viraat was at 5-under thru 13 holes on his 2nd round until derailed by two late bogies and a double bogey to end the day 1-under par.

Round 2 Scorecards - click to enlarge

No doubt low scoring in the final round will be required to overtake the strong OSU squad.

Cardinal competes in the US Collegiate in Georgia

Stanford Daily Recap | Live Scoring | USCC.org | GoStanford Background | GC of Georgia

BACKGROUND 

The same Stanford 5 (Rodgers, Wilson, Boote, Liu and McNealy) who just won at Erin Hills compete in what some have called the Masters of College Golf, the US Collegiate Championship held in Alpharetta, Georgia.  The strong field of 15 teams includes host #2 Georgia Tech, #4 Washington, #6 Oklahoma State, #7 UCLA, #11 Stanford, #16 Texas A&M, #19 Kent State, #20 Auburn, #23 USC and #25 Duke plus Virginia, Clemson, Iowa, Wake Forest and East Tennessee State.

FINAL RESULTS (article by Alan George of GoStanford.com) - recommend reading the excellent recap by the Stanford Daily.
A two-over-par 290 on the third and final day of the United States Collegiate Championship earned the ninth-ranked Stanford men’s golf team a tie for seventh. The three-day event at The Golf Club of Georgia’s Lakeside Course saw the Cardinal post collective scores of 288-288-290 (866).

Final Team Results - click to enlarge

Patrick Rodgers started the third round tied for 41st, but was the low man Sunday with a 67 to finish 2-under on the weekend. Rodgers (75-72-67, 214) tied with Cameron Wilson (69-71-74, 214) for 15th overall.

“We struggled a bit with big numbers and a lack of birdies on the par-fives, but we did a lot of things well,” Stanford’s Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray said. “Cameron and Patrick played solid and both were close to having another chance to win. We’re looking forward to a quick turnaround at next week’s event.”

Stanford will travel to the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate (Oct. 28-29) in Dallas to wrap up its fall season.

David Boote (69-74-74, 217, +1) tied for 29th as Jim Liu (79-71-75, 225, +9) and Maverick McNealy (75-74-76, 225, +9) tied for 60th through three rounds on the par-72, 7,017-yard course.

Round 3 scorecards - click to enlarge

Rodgers final round 5-under was without a bogey. The All-American was 4-over on the front nine to open the tournament and responded with respective front nine performances of 2-under and 3-under on his way to the top-15 finish.

Wilson was 4-over through 11, but rolled in birdies on three of the next seven holes to close his final round with a 2-over 74.

Fifth-ranked Oklahoma State captured the team title by one stroke over defending champion Georgia Tech.

The Cowboys nearly were tied at the finish by the second-ranked Yellow Jackets, but Georgia Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans missed an eight-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole, giving Oklahoma State the win at 15-under 849.

Schniederjans was the individual champion at 10-under 206.  The victory also earned him a tournament exemption for Web.com Tour’s Air Capital Classic next June.

Virginia’s Ben Rusch was second in the individual race at 6-under 210, followed by Georgia Tech’s Anders Albertson at 5-under 211.

Wake Forest finished third at 2-under 862, followed by No. 14 Virginia (863). Third-ranked Texas A&M and No. 17 UCLA shared fifth place at even-par 864.

ROUND TWO RESULTS:
The Cardinal moved up one spot to 7th, 9 strokes behind Oklahoma State after a 2nd even par 288 total.  The tightly bunched leader board finds Stanford only 3 behind 3rd place UCLA.

Round 2 Team Scores - click to enlarge

Cameron Wilson and Jim Liu led the way with 1-under par 71s while Patrick Rodgers had 72, David Boote and Maverick McNealy each shot 74.  Patrick's round was marred by a double on the par 5 finishing hole while Maverick had a triple on the par 3 13th hole.  Cameron is tied for third overall (69-71 140), David is tied for 20th (69-74 143), Patrick is tied for 41st (75-72 147), Maverick is tied for 51st (75-74 149) and Jim is tied for 59th (79-71 150).  The individual leader from OSU is 5 strokes ahead of Cameron at 9-under 135 after rounds of 66-69.

Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge

FIRST ROUND RESULTS (by Alan George for gostanford.com)
Stanford used the efforts of David Boote and Cameron Wilson to put itself in the middle of the 15-team pack Friday through the first round of the United States Collegiate Championship.

The Cardinal pair each notched a 3-under 69, while Stanford sat in eight place after its first trek through the 7,017-yard, par-72 Lakeside Course.

Boote was even heading into the par-5 ninth, and then came away with an eagle on the 540-yard closer. Boote also birdied the par-5, 564-yard 18th.

Wilson had a pair of birdies on both the front and back nine. The lone bogey came on the par-4, 432-yard 14th. Wilson birdied two of the next three to end the day.

Defending champion Georgia Tech exploited perfect scoring conditions at The Golf Club of Georgia and grabbed the first-day lead of by five shots over Oklahoma State.

The host Yellow Jackets compiled a 9-under 279, led by Ollie Schniederjans, whose 6-under 66 shared the individual lead with Virginia’s Ben Rusch.

Round 1 Team scores - click to enlarge

Despite rain-softened greens and windless conditions, defending individual champion Patrick Rodgers recovered from a 4-over front nine to close with a bogey-free back half. Rodgers nabbed a 3-over 75 while tying for 38th with Maverick McNealy.

Jim Liu logged a 7-over 79, hindered mostly by a triple bogey on the 12th hole. Liu started the round 1-under through three with the assistance of looper Conrad Ray.

The first-round stroke average was 73.33, with 34 players at par or better.

The final two rounds of the 54-hole tournament will be streamed live starting at noon (PT) on Saturday and Sunday at GoStanford.com.

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

QUOTES from gostanford.com --- Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray previews the U.S. Collegiate Championship …“We’re excited about where this team is headed. They have been working hard and the results will follow. We have had some great contributions across the lineup this fall and we’re looking for that to continue.  “We’ll be on the road this weekend against a good field for an excellent test of golf.”  Defending champion in this event at 7-under 209 Patrick Rodgers says --- “Playing out here, with the difficulty of the golf course, the crowds, the skyboxes around the 18th green, it really is like playing in a PGA Tour event,” said Rodgers after winning the 2012 title.

Stanford wins the team title and Patrick Rodgers the individual title at Erin Hills in Wisconsin!

Stanford Daily Recap | Erin Hills GC website | Live Scoring | Golfweek recap

The 2017 US Open venue, Erin Hills GC, is the site of the Marquette Invitational. Stanford's team includes two of its highly touted freshmen class, Jim Liu and Maverick McNealy, who will be playing in their first collegiate events. Remaining team members include two-time First Team All-American Patrick Rodgers, Cameron Wilson coming off his first win at Olympia Fields, and top returning sophomore David Boote.

Hosted by Marquette, two other Pac 12 teams are in the field including 3rd ranked UCLA and Oregon State.  Stanford carries an 8th place ranking at this time.  Other teams in the field include a ranked Oklahoma squad, Michigan, Wisconsin and an always solid Northwestern team.

FINAL RESULTS: 
Stanford wins the team championship by 8 strokes over UCLA with a 13-under par score of 851 and

Patrick Rodgers wins his 6th

Patrick Rodgers wins the individual title by 3 strokes at 7-under par on rounds of 68-72-69 209.  This is Patrick's 6th career win in just over two seasons, putting him in 3rd place in Cardinal history behind only Tiger Woods (11) and Joel Kribel (7).

Cameron Wilson (69-72-73 214) tied for 6th with David Boote (71-72-71 214) while freshman Jim Liu ties for 10th place (72-69-74 215) in his first collegiate tournament despite posting a 10 on the par 5 first hole and a 7 on the par 5 18th hole in his final round.  Freshman Maverick McNealy had a strong debut as well as he tied for 25th on rounds of 72-74-73.

The freshmen including Viraat Badhwar who's waiting in the wings to make his college debut are provided important depth and talent to the team's lineup making the prospects very positive going forward.

Final team and 3rd round individual scorecards are included below --- click to enlarge:

Final team results - click to enlarge

Round 3 scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 2 RECAP: weather in the low to high 50s, partly cloudy, with gusty winds to about 12 mph.
The Cardinal extended its lead to 11 strokes over SMU (and 15 over 3rd place teams) with the day's best team score of 3-under 285 (280-285 565).  Patrick Rodgers remains tied for 1st individually (68-72) with Cameron Wilson (69-72) and Jim Liu (72-69) tied for 3rd only one stroke behind.  David Boote (71-72) is tied for 6th overall and Maverick McNealy (72-75) is tied for 25th.

Freshman Jim Liu's 3-under 69 tied for the day's low round as he had 4 birdies and only one bogey.  Patrick's steady round included two birdies and two bogeys while Cameron had 3 bogies offset by an eagle and a birdie.  The individual highlight of the day was a hole in one by David Boote (see photo below) on the 208 yard par 3 sixth hole leading to his even par showing.  Maverick McNealy's round was only marred by his 4-over par play on the par fives as he tallied 4 birdies.  Top 5 team scores and  scorecards are shown below.

David Boote's hole in 1 on #6 - click to enlarge

Top 5 Team scoring - click to enlarge

Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge

ROUND 1 RECAP:  weather low 50s with light winds.
After round 1 Stanford leads the field by 6 strokes with a team total of 8-under 280.   There was solid play by all 5 players, led by a 4-under 68 by Patrick Rodgers, who is tied for 1st individually.  The consistency of Stanford's play was shown in that all 5 players had only a total of 7 bogies on the day, more than offset by 13 birdies and an eagle.

Cameron Wilson shot 69 (T3), David Boote (T7) had 71 while freshmen Jim Liu (T16) and Maverick McNealy (T16) had par 72s.

The top 7 teams and individual scorecards are shown below -- click to enlarge:

Top 7 Teams & individuals - click to enlarge

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge