Thursday, December 29, 2011

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


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.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Cardinal signs Boote and Francks to National Letters of Intent


STANFORD, Calif. - The Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf, Conrad Ray, has announced high school senior Dominick Francks and International Student David Boote have signed national letters of intent to attend Stanford University next fall.
Francks, who is from Olympia, Washington and attends Olympia High School has collected many golfing accolades on a regional and national stage.


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


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


Notable results on the national golfing scene in 2011 included tied 3rd place in the Callaway Junior World Championship, 5th in the Junior America’s Cup and tied 2nd place 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 Varsity Basketball and is a member of the Olympia High School Sports Round Table. Dominick stands 6'3" and weighs 195 lbs.


His fields 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 College where he is studying for A-Levels in Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Economics and Critical Thinking. Despite residing in the suburbs of London in England, David is very proud of his Welsh heritage and is their 2011 National Junior Champion. 


Success representing Wales at Junior level in European International events along 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 the Welsh National Men’s Amateur Squad. 


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


Individually in 2011, David won the United Kingdom Nick Faldo Series Championship. Through numerous wins and top finishes in National cometitions over the course of several years, David earned selection opportunities to competed twice on American soil at the Junior Jones Cup and the Junior Players where he finished respectably in 9th and 35th spots respectively. 


Outside of golf, David plays the lead baritone saxophone for his school band ensemble, acts in his school dramatics society and has represented 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

Monday, October 31, 2011

Gifford Collegiate at CordeValle is underway in San Martin, CA


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.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Isleworth Collegiate Results in Windermere, Florida


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

Monday, October 10, 2011

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


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

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Perspective on Stanford's win at Olympia Fields

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
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Saturday, September 17, 2011

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

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.



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