California men’s golf returns to action this week, heading to the Cabo Collegiate in Cabo San Lucas. The three-day, 54-hole tournament will take place at the Cabo Del Sol Ocean Course from Sunday, Feb. 27-Tuesday, March 1.
Here’s how the Bears’ lineup will look:
1. Aaron Du
2. Simon Kwon
3. Ethan Chung
4. Sampson Zheng
5. Tony Chen
Cal will compete with many of the nation’s top teams this weekend with eight of the 15 in attendance ranked in the top 20: Arizona State (No. 2), Oklahoma State (No. 3), Texas Tech (No. 6), Arkansas (No. 7), Stanford (No. 8), Tennessee (No. 10), Ole Miss (No. 16) and Alabama (No. 20).
Sophomore Aaron Du heads to Cabo fresh off of winning his first collegiate tournament at the John Burns Intercollegiate. His battle for first came down to the final two holes, but Du was ultimately able to pull it out with birdies in his final two frames. Overall, Du finished -13 (203 – a career low) and he shot a career-best 66 (-6) strokes in the first round. In his two tournaments this spring, the Beijing, China native has shot 23 under par with a stroke average of 68.16 during that time. Second in the Bears lineup this weekend is freshman Simon Kwon. Kwon competed as an individual last week and jumped out to a first-round lead after shooting a 65 (-7) on the first day of the John Burns Intercollegiate. Kwon followed up his strong first round with scores of 72 (E) and 73 (+1) to tie for eighth. This will be just his third tournament in the Bear’s lineup and first this spring.
Another young Bear, redshirt-freshman Ethan Chung, will compete for the Bears at the Cabo Del Sol Ocean Course. Chung tied for 40th last weekend with 220 (+4) strokes. His best round was his second when he carded a 69 (-3). That was his second-best round of the season. Following Chung will be sophomore Sampson Zheng who has been a mainstay in Cal’s lineup all year, competing in five tournaments to this point. Although he tied for 58th (223, +7) on Kauai, his best finish of the season came at the Isleworth Collegiate where he tied for 18th with 218 (+2) strokes. Redshirt freshman Tony Chen will round out the all-underclassman lineup in Cabo San Lucas. The Shenzhen, China native last competed in the fall at the Isleworth Collegiate where he tied for 18th (218, +2). In four events with the Bears, he has accumulated a stroke average of 73.9.
This week’s event will begin with a shotgun start each day at 7am PT. Live stats can be found here.