Stanford finishes tied for 3rd at Isleworth Collegiate in Florida

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

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

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.  Complete 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.  Complete 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

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

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

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!

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.