The No. 2 Stanford men’s golf team claimed the NCAA Central Regional title on Saturday with a 54-hole score of 830 (10-under-par) at the Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Ind.
The Cardinal will advance to the NCAA Championships, to be held June 1-6 at the Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Stanford’s top five finishers from the Pac-10 Championships – senior Joseph Bramlett, juniors Steve Ziegler and Sihwan Kim, sophomore David Chung and freshman Andrew Yun – represented the Cardinal in the regional.
Stanford led the tournament from start to finish, never relinquishing the top spot after a first round 277 (three-under) on Thursday.
The Cardinal closed out the three-day tournament with a final round 274 (six-under) to beat second place Florida State (six-under) by four strokes.
Florida (two-under), Duke (one-under) and LSU (seven-over) will also advance to the NCAA Championships from the Central Regional.
“We came in with the mindset that we wanted to win this tournament and we’re excited that we were able to do so,” Stanford head coach Conrad Ray told GoStanford.com. “It was a great field and I felt it was one of the stronger regionals out there. We had a good vibe from the first shot we hit in the practice round.”
The Indiana skies stayed clear for most of the weekend, except for a brief rain delay during the second round on Friday.
Three of Stanford’s five players finished in the top 10 individually.
Chung led the team with a three-round score of 206 (four-under), enough for a fourth-place finish, two strokes behind medalist Drew Kitteson of Florida State.
Chung carded a 67 to kick off the weekend and finished with a 70 and a 69.
Ziegler shot a final-round 69 to finish at 207 (three-under) and tied for fifth place overall.
Kim was consistent all week, posting scores of 69, 69 and 70 to finish tied for sixth at 208 (two-under).
Yun posted a four-under 66 on Saturday to climb up to a 19th-place tie at even-par 210.
Bramlett, who placed fourth at the Pac-10 Championships, failed to go under par, posting rounds of 70, 74 and 72 to finish tied for 39th.
Stanford is seeking its ninth national title and first since 2007, when Bramlett was a contributing freshman.