The California men’s golf team shot 23-under-par over the final 36 holes to rally back and win its second consecutive tournament title of the fall at the Cal Poly Invitational on Tuesday at The Preserve Golf Club. Redshirt junior Tony Chen was the catalyst for the victory, claiming individual medalist honors for the first time in his collegiate career with a 10-under-par 206.
The victory capped an impressive fall slate for the No. 18/23 (Golf Channel/Golfweek) Golden Bears, who finished among the top three in all four stroke-play tournaments including the back-to-back wins at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational on Oct. 9-10 and the Cal Poly Invitational this week.
Cal found itself in 11th place after a first-round 290 but shot up the leaderboard with a second-round 277 that spanned both Monday and Tuesday. Chen carded a bogey-free 6-under 66 in the second round while Ethan Chung posted a 5-under 67 in the same span to lead the charge. Chen – who started the tournament slow with a first-round 75 – had even more to give in the third round, shooting a 7-under 65 with eight birdies across the round. The Golden Bear climbed 15 individual spots over the final 18 holes to beat out UCLA’s Omar Morales (-9) for the individual title.
Chen is Cal’s second individual medalist of the season, joining freshman Eric Lee, who won co-medalist honors in his collegiate debut at the Marquette Intercollegiate.
Sophomore Nathan Wang shot under par in all three rounds on his way to a tie for ninth at 6-under (210). It was his second straight top-10 finish and lowered his season stroke average to 69.22. Daniel Heo (-5) – who played as an individual – Charlie Berridge (-3) and Ethan Chung (-1) all finished under par and placed 13th, 21st and 28th, respectively.
UCLA (-16) and Northwestern (-16) tied for second in the team standings, followed by Oregon (-12) and Duke (-9) to round out the top five.