Cardinal falls on final day despite big lead
Stanford men’s golf hasn’t won a Pac-10 Championship since 1994, the same year that Tiger Woods was a senior in high school.
After two days and three rounds in Tempe, Ariz. at the Karsten Golf Course, however, the team looked poised to end its 16-year drought.
The Cardinal was also strong in the individual competition. Senior Joseph Bramlett lurked two strokes behind leader Jesper Kennegard of Arizona State after shooting three consecutive five-under rounds of 66.
“No matter where you’re playing,” said head coach Conrad Ray, “that’s pretty impressive.”
“We were firing on all cylinders,” Bramlett said. “Monday was the best day of team golf I’ve had at Stanford.”
The Cardinal was 35 strokes under par after two rounds, 13 strokes ahead of second-place Arizona State.
“It was great to be back in that spot,” Bramlett said. “It was so fun for everyone to be doing that well on the same day.”
The Karsten course features a desert layout with few trees and limited water hazards. For the first two days, the wind was a non-factor and left the course exposed to a lot of low scores.
“It’s a course that really allows you to put the pedal to the metal and try to make as many birdies as you can,” Bramlett explained.
On Wednesday, the winds picked up and Stanford failed to repeat the success of the first two days.
The Cardinal entered the final round with a seven-stroke lead over Washington, but had to settle for second place after an eight-over team score of 363 in the final round.
The team tournament was up in the air until the last few holes. Stanford freshman Andrew Yun made a costly triple bogey on the 16th hole, but the crippling blow came when Washington senior Richard Lee made a 60-foot putt on the 18th hole.
Washington won the tournament with a final score of 1386 (-34), three strokes better than Stanford.
Bramlett carded a 75 on Wednesday to finish tied for fourth at an 11-under 273, five strokes behind winner Eric Mina of California.
“With 20 to 30 mile-per-hour winds, you really had to have good control of your ball,” he said. “I got off to a bad start, went in the water twice and had a three-putt.”
Junior Steve Ziegler carded a final-round 69 to tie for 10th at 276 (-8). Ziegler finished all four rounds under par—his first three round scores were 66, 71 and 70.
Freshman Andrew Yun also tied for 10th with a final-round 73.
Sophomore David Chung shot his second straight 73 to finish tied for 20th at 282 (-2).
Junior Sihwan Kim also finished tied for 20th after closing with a 73 on Wednesday. Kim had struggled prior to the tournament, carding a series of scores over 80 at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational and the U.S. Intercollegiate.
Freshman Andrew DeDecker shot a final round 77 to finish 58th at 299.
Stanford will not play again until the NCAA Regionals start on May 19. Next week, the Cardinal will find out which regional it will be playing in.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Bramlett said. “It sucks that we lost the tournament, but I think we finally got a taste of what were capable of.”