2014-15 season begins with a dominating win at USC Invitational by the team and Maverick McNealy

Stanford wins by 15 strokes - click to enlarge

Live Scoring | North Ranch CC 

The 2014-15 season began at the USC Invitational at North Ranch CC in Thousand Oaks, CA.  Stanford's team included 3 returning sophomores Maverick McNealy, Jim Liua and Viraat Badhwar plus junior Dominic Francks and senior Patrick Grimes.  David Boote, a junior and top player from last year is in Japan representing Wales in the world amateur team championships.

Final Round Results:
The new season began with a resounding 15-stroke victory by the young Stanford Cardinal team led

Sophomore Maverick McNealy leads Stanford to a victory with his 5-stroke win

by a 5-shot individual win for sophomore Maverick McNealy and a 2nd place finish by sophomore Jim Liu.  Including last season's finish of 5 stroke play wins, this victory was the 6th straight team scoring title.  The top 4 team and individual scores are shown below (click to enlarge):

Team and individual scoring - click to enlarge

Liu

The final round showed impressive depth from all 5 players including a 66 by Maverick, 70 by Jim Liu, another 1-under 70 by Dominick Francks, a 71 by Patrick Grimes and a 72 by Viraat Badhwar leading to the tournament's lowest team score of 8-under par 276.  And this big win was done without David Boote, a top returning junior from last year who's in Japan playing in the World Amateur championships.

Maverick's final round 65 matched his Stanford low while his 203 total was his best as a Cardinal as he captured the first collegiate title of his young career.  His 65 included 7 birdies and a lone bogey on his final hole.  Maverick's scorecards are included below (click to enlarge):

Maverick McNealy's winning scorecards - click to enlarge

Jim's 2nd place finish and 208 total were his best as a Cardinal and his fine scoring is shown below:

Jim Liu ties for 2nd with these 3 rounds - click to enlarge

The team moves  on to play at Olympia Fields in Chicago in the Illini Invitational September 12-14.

Round 1 and 2 Results: provided by gostanford.com

Cardinal Leads at Fall Opener ---McNealy, Liu tied for first

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – Stanford started the fall portion of its 2014-15 schedule right where it left off at the end of its previous regular season -- on top of the leaderboard.

The Cardinal is first among the 12-team field at the Southwestern Intercollegiate, as 36 holes of the three-round event at the par-71, 6,964-yard North Ranch Country Club were contested Monday.

At 4-over, Stanford (280-292) is six strokes ahead of second-place Washington (578). The Huskies fired a tournament-best 2-over in the second round of competition. Host USC (580) is third overall.

Round 1 & 2 Results - click to enlarge

Stanford, which collected six wins during the 2013-14 slate, closed its prior regular-season schedule with back-to-back wins. In fact, the Cardinal has not trailed through each of its last 14 days of stroke-play competition, a streak that originated March 28, 2014. Stanford last trailed on such an occasion at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters (March 9), when it finished second.

Maverick McNealy (66-72) and Jim Liu (69-69) are tied for first among individuals, with Viraat Badhwar (70-73) in seventh. Patrick Grimes (75-79) is tied for 54th and Dominick Francks (78-78) is tied for 58th.

McNealy was 6-under on the back nine of his opening round, tacking on an eagle on the par-5 15th.

The final 18 holes will be played Tuesday beginning at 8 a.m. (PT).

Stanford gets its second win at the Prestige at La Quinta, CA. Rodgers wins his 7th event as a Cardinal

GoStanford.com Recap | Live Scoring | PGA West Greg Norman Course

Stanford wins The Prestige at PGA West for its second team title while Patrick Rodgers gets his 7th career individual college.  Stanford brought its entire team (except Shane Lebow who is injured) to play in the 14th Prestige held at PGA West's Greg Norman Course in La Quinta, CA.  The strong field included 6 teams from the deep Pac-12 conference.

Click to enlarge

The final leaderboard is shown below.

Team leaderboard - click to enlarge

Final Round Results:
Stanford held on to win its second team title this season  by 2 strokes over a hard charging Washington team that carved 12 strokes off the 14 stroke lead going into the final round.  The team win was led by a 7th career win by Patrick Rodgers (65-68-71 204 1st) who was closely followed by Cameron Wilson who finished tied for 4th overall (68-70-69 207 T4).  As an individual, freshman Jim Liu had a strong tourney as he tied for 7th (74-67-68 209 T7) - see below.

Final Round Scorecards - click to enlarge

The two leaders were followed good contributions by David Boote (71-70-72 213 T24), Maverick McNealy (65-72-77 214 T25) and Viraat Badhwar (73-72-70 215 T28).  Viraat's important final round was highlighted by 5 straight birdies starting at #8, a run that moved him 3 under on his round. A double bogey at #13 marred an otherwise excellent round.

“I’m really excited for the team to pick up our second win of the season, and hats off to Washington for a solid round to finish the tournament,” Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray said. “Our guys held strong and finished well. We had contributions from all players in the lineup and it was neat to see Patrick Rodgers win another individual title.“We’re looking forward to working on a few loose ends to get ready for our next event.” (Southern Highlands March 7-9). 

Patrick's individual win moved him into a 2nd place tie with 4-time All-American Joel Kribel ('99)  on the career win list at Stanford, behind only Tiger Woods' ('96) 11 wins in his two seasons.  Patrick's final round was a steady one with his two birdies and two bogies preserving his 1 shot victory.  Cameron tie for 4th continued his excellent season that finds him #1 on the team with a 69.61 scoring average and 5 our 6 top 10 finishes.  Patrick is close behind Cameron in scoring average at 69.83.

Patrick Rodgers' 3 round scorecards - click to enlarge

Team Rodgers - click to enlarge

Of special note on the individual front was the play of freshman Jim Liu who charged up the leaderboard to finish tied for 7th overall with rounds of 74-67-68 209 (T7).  Liu's scorecards can be found below.

Jim Liu's scorecards - click to enlarge

Round Two Results:
A solid 4-under par second round score of 280 (3rd best on the day) extended the Stanford lead to 14 strokes over Washington and 17 over Oregon headed into the final round.  Balanced scoring was led by Patrick Rodgers (65-68 133 1st) leaving him in 4 shots ahead of the field in the individual competition.  Tied for 2nd overall was Maverick McNealy (65-72 137 T2) with Cameron Wilson another stroke back and tied for 3rd (68-70 138 T3).  David Boote is tied for 14th after a steady 1-under 70 (71-70 141 T14) and Viraat Badhwar is at 145 after a 72 (73-72 145 T37).

"Our guys hung in there today and extended our lead, which was the goal going into round two," Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray said. "The hole locations were more challenging and the birdies were a little harder to come by. Tomorrow will be good training for our guys to play with a lead, and we hope to come out on top."

Playing as individuals, Jim Liu tied for the day's 2nd low round with a 67 (low round was 66) and

Jim Liu

stands tied for 14th at 141 (74-67 141 T14), Dominic Francks is at 150 (76-74 150 T54), Patrick Grimes at 153 (79-74 153 T62) and Keegan English at 160 (82-78 160 T69).

Weather conditions in the desert were perfect with temperatures in the mid to high eighties and light winds.  Team and individual scoring is included below.

Round 2 teams scoring - click to enlarge

Round 2 scorecards - click to enlarge

Round One Results:
It was a great start for the Cardinal on a day when there were light winds under 10 mph, clear and

sunny conditions between 70 and 80+ degrees.  Ideal for scoring --- at least for Stanford which raced to a 15-under 269 total giving them an 11-stroke lead over San Diego State.  Stanford was led by a pair of 65s by Patrick Rodgers and Maverick McNealy placing them first individually, 3 strokes ahead of the four players with 68s including Cameron Wilson.  Patrick's round included 8 birdies and one double bogey as he shot a 30 on the back nine while Maverick had 7 birdies and one bogey and a 31 on his back nine.

David Boote was at even par 71 and Viraat Badhwar shot a 73.  Playing as individuals Jim Liu shot 74, Dominic Francks 76, Patrick Grimes 79 and Keegan English shot an 82.

The top 10 team and individual scoring is shown below followed by the 5 team member scorecards.

Team and individual scores - click to enlarge

Round 1 scorecards - click to enlarge

Background by gostanford.com
The Event
• Co-hosted by Stanford and UC Davis, the 14th Prestige will be played at PGA West’s Greg Norman Course in La Quinta, Calif.

• Stanford won the 2006 team title after firing a 15-under, led by medalist Zach Miller’s 9-under performance. Andrew Yung (-12) was the 2012 medalist.

• In 2013, the Cardinal was fifth at 8-over as Stanford frontrunners Cameron Wilson and Andrew Yun tied for seventh at even-par 213.

The Field
• The 12-team field includes No. 11 Stanford, No. 17 Washington, No. 22 USC, No. 23 UCLA, Arizona State, LSU, Texas Tech, Oregon, San Diego State, UC Davis, Pepperdine and Stirling (Scotland).

The Format
• The three-day, 54-hole event will feature 18 holes each day. The lowest four scores of each team’s five players will comprise the overall team score.

The Course
• The newest course at PGA West and the only Greg Norman-designed golf course in the Coachella Valley is aptly described as being very “challenging but fair.” Sporting only 68 acres of lush manicured turf, 102 white-crushed marble bunkers and shark blue water coming into play on nine holes, the par-72, 7,096-yard course offers a truly Outback experience.

• Resting in a prehistoric ocean bed 40-feet below sea level and surrounded by an immense crescent of terra cotta mountains, the course teems with purple, white and yellow wildflowers, while the mix of tall and short native grasses produce different shades of green running almost to silver. The grass covers just 60 acres of tight fairways that taper toward the greens with nine ponds blanketing 18 acres. The demands of this target-style course are a challenge for players of all levels.

Quotable
• Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf Conrad Ray previews the Prestige at PGA West …
“Our guys are eager to get down to PGA West and compete. It is a course we know well and have had some success on. If the weather cooperates, the scores are usually fairly low. Our event in Hawaii was a good tune-up. We have focused this week on par-three scoring, which was an area of concern in Hawaii.

“We are looking forward to everyone on the team teeing it up except senior Shane Lebow, who is out due to injury. Experience under pressure and tournament rounds played are solid keys to success down the road, and The Prestige will lend itself to both.”

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

Stanford Announces Three National Letter of Intent Signings

STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford University men's golf program has signed Jim Liu, Maverick McNealy, and Viraat Badhwar to NCAA letters of intent in the 2013 incoming freshman class, announced The Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf Conrad Ray.  This diverse class includes two players nationally ranked #1 in their respective countries and a home grown phenom who first won the Stanford men's club championship at age 13.

Maverick McNealy is the tenth-ranked player in California according to the Junior Golf Scoreboard and will be graduating from The Harker School in San Jose, Calif. in the spring. A three-time Stanford University Golf Club Men's Champion, McNealy placed third at the 2012 NCGA Junior Amateur at Spyglass Hill. Maverick won the 2012 Stanford club championship with his last three rounds of 69-69-67.  He was also a quarterfinalist at the 2012 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and 2012 NCGA Amateur Match Play tournament at Spyglass Hill. He is the current course record holder at Sharon Heights Country Club in Menlo Park, CA after carding a 65 (-7).

Viraat Badhwar will join the Cardinal from Queensland, Australia, where he is the No. 1-ranked junior golfer in Australia and a student at Kelvin Grove State College. A member of the Australian Junior Golf Squad in 2012, Badhwar has a USGA handicap of +4. He won the 2012 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan leading Australia to the World Cup title with a 12-under par 72-68-65-67 performance.  Viraat was the runner-up at the 2012 Australian Boys Amateur Championship. Badhwar was ranked as the #1 junior golfer in India from 2005 to 2007 before moving to Australia. Badhwar also recently was awarded the Platinum Award from Kelvin Grove State College for excellence in golf and academics.

Jim Liu, from Smithtown, NY is the No. 1 ranked high school golfer by Golfweek and the Junior Golf Scoreboard. Liu will graduate from The Knox School in Nissequogue, N.Y. in the spring. Liu is a four-time consecutive AJGA Rolex All-American, and was a member of two victorious junior Ryder Cup teams in 2010 and 2012. Liu advanced through the first stage of qualifying school for the 2012 European Tour, and has collected every USGA Junior Amateur Championship medal (gold, silver, stroke-play, medalist and sectional qualifying medalist). He surpassed Tiger Woods' record at the U.S. Junior Amateur, becoming the youngest champion in the tournaments' history in 2010. Liu also was the runner-up at the 2012 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and is a four-time U.S. Kids World champion. 
"The 2013 Stanford Men's Golf recruiting class may go down as the strongest in our programs history," said Ray. "When we are able to sign a single No. 1-ranked player in a given year it is a big deal, but to have two is very rare. The rigorous nature of the Stanford admissions process is well known and it is a credit to these student-athletes that they have been admitted and are making a great choice in Stanford University. We are very excited to add Maverick, Jim, and Viraat to the Cardinal roster in 2013 to continue our pursuit of the programs ninth national championship."