No. 4 Stanford men’s golf competes in Georgia this week for its penultimate event of the fall season, the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate, on the Lakeside Course. With a stacked field of 15 teams, the tournament will be a great test for the surging Cardinal.
In its last event, the Colonial Collegiate Invitational, Stanford picked up its first team win since the 2019 NCAA Championship. In the final round, the Cardinal posted a scorching 11-under-par 269 to surpass seven top-25 teams.
Sophomore Michael Thorbjornsen led the charge for Stanford. He made six birdies to go against just two bogeys and shoot 66 in the final round. His five-under-par total for the tournament was good for a career-best, solo second finish.
Throbjornsen’s performance at the Colonial Collegiate was just another instance of his strong play that dates back to the summer. In July, he went on an amazing run in individual amateur tournaments, first winning the Massachusetts Amateur and then the Western Amateur. Given his game in the last few months, Thorbjornsen should be on everyone’s radar this week.
Just behind Thorbjornsen at Colonial was sixth year Henry Shimp. At three-under-par, he finished in a tie for third place to extend his top-12 streak to four events. He is also the only Cardinal golfer in the lineup who has prior experience at the Lakeside Course; in 2017, he shot rounds of 77, 69 and 70 to finish in 44th place at the same tournament.
Sophomore Karl Vilips was the third Stanford golfer to break 70 in the final round at Colonial. After a double bogey on the fourth hole, Vilips played the remainder of his round in four-under-par to shoot 68. When the dust settled, he picked up his second consecutive 20th place finish to start the season.
Completing the Stanford lineup for the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate is the duo of junior Barclay Brown and freshman Alex Yang. Brown, who was a member of the All-Pac-12 First Team last season, finished in a tie for 35th at the Fighting Illini Invitational. Yang made his debut at Colonial and finished in a tie for 34th.
The Cardinal face off against 14 other teams on the par-72, 7,092-yard Lakeside Course. The field includes strong programs such as No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 11 Pepperdine, No. 13 Wake Forest, No. 15 Georgia Tech, No. 16 Tennessee, No. 20 East Tennessee State and No. 22 Virginia.
Stanford men’s golf teed off at the three-day, 54-hole tournament Friday morning in Alpharetta, Ga. As of 5 p.m. PT Friday, the Cardinal were positioned eighth out of the 15-team field, with Vilips sitting in fourth following a five-under-par first-round mark of 67. The second round of play for the Cardinal will begin Saturday morning at 6:20 a.m. PT.