In its first tournament action in nearly a year, the Stanford men’s golf team placed sixth at The Prestige at PGA West. After a lackluster first two rounds, the defending NCAA champions posted the lowest team score in the final round, a stellar eight-under-par 276.

The freshman duo of Karl Vilips and Michael Thorbjornsen led the Cardinal on day one. Vilips carded five birdies en route to a two-under-par 69 in his first collegiate round, while Thorbjornsen shot an even-par 71. Fifth year Henry Shimp and senior Ashwin Arasu added rounds of 76, as the Cardinal ended the day in 20th place out of 24 teams.

In the second round, Stanford climbed two spots to reach 18th place as a team despite posting its worst score of the tournament. Shimp recorded a one-over-par 72, and sophomore Barclay Brown shot 74. Thorbjornsen and Vilips rounded out the top four scores for the team with rounds of 75 and 76, respectively.

On the final day of the tournament the Cardinal found its form, and each of its top four scoring players broke par. Brown channeled his success from The Prestige tournament last year, and he birdied three of the last four holes to shoot 68. Arasu made just one bogey in his round of 69, while Thorbjornsen’s bogey-free back nine propelled him to a one-under-par 70. Vilips shot his second 69 of the tournament to grab the lowest individual finish for Stanford, a tie for 12th place.  

When the dust had settled in the final round, the Cardinal had jumped 12 spots to take sixth place. The team finished 17 shots off of the co-champions Arizona and North Carolina.

The Cardinal will look to carry its momentum from the final round of The Prestige to its match against Santa Clara on Feb. 22 at The Farm.

This article has been updated to reflect that the next men’s golf match will be against Santa Clara on Feb. 22, not at the Pac-12 Championships on Apr. 26. The Daily regrets this error.