Photo by Dino Gomez
Senior Jamie Cheatham saved his best round for last, shooting a 68 (-4) to propel himself nine spots in the standings to finish third at the 2020 Lamkin San Diego Classic. As a team, California took fifth place out of 19 after the Bears also produced their best round of the tournament on Tuesday.
“We put ourselves in position to win the tournament, and I’m proud of the players for putting the team in that opportunity,” said Alex and Marie Shipman Director of Men’s Golf Walter Chun. “We just didn’t close out our round. It’s a tremendous experience for this young team to do what they did today, and it will hold us in good stead moving forward.”
Cheatham started off his final 18 holes with a birdie and moved as far as five under par with two holes remaining. In total, he collected six birdies in the round and 11 overall. Cheatham’s average score of 2.83 on par 3s was tied for the lowest out of all 100 players and he finished the tournament with an overall score of 211 (-5).
“I gave myself a bunch of birdie opportunities and was able to make a fair share of them today,” said Cheatham. “The greens were really difficult so I made sure I left myself in good spots on and around the greens to avoid making big mistakes.”
Meanwhile, junior Kaiwen Liu finished tied for 14th, four strokes behind Cheatham after shooting a 75 (+3) on Tuesday and entering the third round in fourth. Liu performed well on par 4s throughout his three rounds, finishing three under on those holes which was the fourth lowest in the field. The San Diego native also tallied 14 birdies in total and finished with 215 strokes (-1).
Junior Finigan Tilly picked up where he left off on Tuesday, duplicating his second round performance with a 71 (-1) on Tuesday. In the round, he collected two birdies and an eagle over the course of five holes which brought his score to as low as three under par. Tilly tied for 44th in the tournament with an overall score of 220 (+4). Lastly, freshman Kento Yamawaki also replicated his second round, shooting a 73 (+1) in his final 18 holes. He tied for 51st overall.
As a group, Cal posted the third lowest score on par 5s, finishing 19 under par on those holes with an average score of 4.68. The Bears also shot a pair of Eagles in the final round to finish the tournament with four overall. California fifth-place scoreline looked like this: 864 (294, 285, 283, -2)
Competing as individuals, Connor Golembeski and Kyle Maspat tied for ninth and 11th respectively at the Coronado Golf Course.
The Bears will spend the next two weeks preparing for the Goodwin March 26-28 which is hosted by Stanford on the Stanford Golf Course.