Cal Bears Primed For The Goodwin

The No. 20 California menā€™s golf team will stay close to home this week when it competes in The Goodwin at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. The three-day, 54-hole event, hosted annually by Stanford at the site of the 2020 PGA Championship, runs Thursday through Saturday.

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The Golden Bears will play the first and second rounds alongside the three other top-ranked squads in the 31-team field, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 15 Georgia Tech and No. 22 Georgia. Ten teams competing at The GoodwinĀ are ranked among the top 50 nationally (Clippd).

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Cal tees off hole 1 between 1-1:48 p.m. PT Thursday and starts the second round on hole 10 between 8:05-8:53 a.m. PT Friday.

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TOURNAMENT INFO

  • Dates: March 28-30, 2024
  • Format: 54 holes (18-18-18, Thursday-Saturday); 5-count-4
  • Location:Ā San Francisco, California | TPC Harding Park
  • Course Info: Par 70 | 7,193 Yards
  • Live Scoring:Ā Golfstat

THE FIELD (31)

Appalachian State, #45 BYU, #20 California, California Baptist, Cal Poly, Clemson, Colorado, #22 Georgia, #15 Georgia Tech, Howard, Lipscomb, Little Rock, #49 Long Beach State, Nevada, #24 Oregon, Oregon State, Pepperdine, San Diego, #31 San Diego State, San Francisco, San Jose State, Santa Clara, #44 Stanford, TCU, #8 Tennessee, UC Davis, #27 UCLA, USC, Utah, Utah Tech, Washington State

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OFF THE TEE

1. Sampson Zheng

2. Ethan Fang

3. Kuangyu (Tony) Chen

4. Eric Lee

5. Daniel Heo

Individual: Jeewon Park

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CHIP SHOTS

  • Cal owns an 82-26-1 record with six top-five finishes and a pair of victories in eight stroke-play events this season. The two victories came back-to-back in October at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational and the Cal Poly Invitational.
  • Cal most recently carded a tournament-low 10-under-par 274 in the third round to climb four spots and finish in fifth place at the Pauma Valley Invitational on March 19.
  • The Bears have ranked as high as No. 17 this spring and have held a national ranking for all 10 weeks of the spring season.
  • Freshman Ethan Fang has been on a tear this spring, earning three top-10 finishes in four tournaments. He most recently tied for second at the Pauma Valley Invitational, shooting 70-70-65 (-8). Heā€™s averaging 70.50 strokes per round across 12 rounds played this spring.
  • Sampson Zheng has excelled at The Goodwin the past two seasons, tying for third in 2022 and fifth in 2023. Heā€™s 15-under-par across the two most recent editions of the tournament, shooting 66-66-67 in 2022 and 69-73-64 in 2023.
  • Zheng, Calā€™s No. 1 this week, has played in just five stroke-play events for Cal this season, owns a scoring average of 70.86. Heā€™s ranked 22nd in the latest PGA Tour University poll and 60th nationally (Clippd).
  • Kuangyu (Tony) Chen, ranked 86th nationally (Clippd), has played in all eight of Calā€™s stroke-play events this season, owning a 70.58 scoring average across 24 rounds. Chen ended the fall slate with a bang by winning the Cal Poly Invitational (206, -10) and tied for third at the John Burns Intercollegiate (209, -7) in February.
  • Eric Lee ā€“ who won his collegiate debut at the Marquette Intercollegiate last September ā€“ and Daniel Heo both tied for 37th individually at the Pauma Valley Invitational. Lee has competed in seven of Calā€™s eight events as a freshman (twice as an individual) while Heo is making his second appearance in the Bearsā€™ lineup this spring.
  • Three Bears ā€“ Chen, Lee and Zheng ā€“ earned Pac-12 Golfer of the Week honors in the fall. All three are competing this week.
  • Jeewon Park, playing as an individual, tees off at 9 a.m. Thursday (hole 1) and Friday (hole 10).

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