On day two of the Cabo Collegiate, California men’s golf improved to sixth place, shooting a combined 274 (-10) to tie for the lowest team score of the day. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman Tony Chen remains atop Cal’s leaderboard, tied for 12th after delivering a 69 (-2) on Monday. He now has a score of 137 (-5) with one round remaining.
With five birdies and one bogey, Chen found himself three under par through his first seven holes. After posting +3 over his next two holes, he was able to recover with two more birdies and a bogey to finish the round two under. The Shenzhen, China native has amassed 12 birdies through 36 holes which is tied for the second-most in the 78-player field. After producing a score of 70 (-1) on Sunday, freshman Simon Kwon improved to 69 (-2) today and is now tied for 20th with 139 (-3) strokes. His round included an eagle, a birdie and just one bogey. His eagle on the 16th hole is just the second for the Bears this tournament as redshirt freshman Ethan Chung (T60 – 147, +5) also produced an eagle on hole number two today. With two overall, Cal is tied for the fourth most in the 15-team field.
Sophomores Aaron Du and Sampson Zheng continue to mirror each other’s scores as the duo both improved four strokes in the second round, carding 68s (-3) after shooting 72s (+1) in the opening 18 holes. The pair are tied for 27th with 140 (-2) strokes overall. Both Bears contributed nearly spotless scorecards with four birdies and one bogey each.
As a team, Cal put together its best round of the season on Monday with 274 (-10) strokes. The Bears impressive round moved them up three spots in the standings to sixth place with a combined score of 556 (-12). Cal is certainly not out of the mix as it is just six strokes back of leaders Florida State and Oklahoma State (550, -18) with one round to play. Should they deliver a similar effort in Tuesday’s final round, the Bears are likely to earn themselves a podium-finish; this would be a notable feat considering eight of the tournament’s 15 teams are currently nationally ranked in the top 20.
Cal will return to the Cabo Del Sol Ocean Course once more on Tuesday morning with a shotgun start beginning at 7am PT. The Bears will be paired with players from Vanderbilt (fifth place), Tennessee (seventh place) and Texas Tech (eighth place).