On Wednesday, No. 17 Stanford men’s golf team won the Pac-12 Championship for the 11th time in school history, making it the team’s third-straight tournament victory. The Cardinal entered the fourth and final round four strokes behind leader No. 12 California but made up the difference on the front nine of Eugene Country Club in Oregon before taking the lead and never looking back.
Senior Isaiah Salinda was Stanford’s leading scorer, placing fifth overall individually at 3-under 281. Salinda shot the best round out of any Cardinal player in the second round with a 5-under 66.
Overall, Stanford recorded a score of 7-under 1,413 over four rounds of play with Salinda, senior Brandon Wu, freshman Daulet Tuleubayev, junior David Snyder and sophomore Nate Menon as the team’s top five scorers. The conference title ended a two-year drought for Stanford since the Cardinal won three in a row from 2014 to 2016.
The victory at Eugene also marked the third-straight first-place finish for the golfers from the Farm, who took home top honors at The Goodwin and the Western Intercollegiate prior to this tournament from Sunday to Wednesday. Last time Stanford won these three tournaments consecutively in 2014, they went on to win the NCAA Regionals in the next round of playoff golf.
How the Cardinal fare on the national stage is yet to be seen, but history could repeat itself in May with another strong showing from Stanford at the NCAA Regionals. Regional tournament fields have yet to be announced; the tournaments will take place from May 13-15 at Stanford.
Home course advantage could play a large role in the team’s effort to vie for a NCAA Championship bid later in May.
For now, Stanford returns to the Farm to get a few final weeks of practice in before play resumes in mid-May. Stanford’s competition for the NCAA Regional Tournament should be announced within the coming week.
Contact Andrew Tan at tandrew ‘at’ stanford .edu.