Photo: Catharyn Hayne/KLC fotos
Three Golden Bears tied for ninth place individually in a 75-man field and the California men’s golf team earned a fourth-place finish at the Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate at Tucson Country Club on Tuesday.
Cal ended the two-day, 54-hole tournament at 11-over-par 875 (283-290-302), finishing behind champion No. 25 Arizona (+3), No. 29 Long Beach State (+4) and No. 10 Utah (+6). The Bears entered Tuesday’s final round at 3-under and trailed the host Wildcats by only two strokes but fell back two spots with the third-round 302. The fourth-place effort still marked Cal’s best finish since mid-October.
Senior Charlie Berridge, freshman Ziqin (Eric) Zhou and graduate Wenliang Xie – playing as an individual – tied for ninth at 1-over 217. Berridge was in a four-way tie for first place at 5-under through 36 holes but dropped eight spots with a 78 in the third round. Freshman Kai Hirayama, playing in the Cal lineup for the first time this week, had the Bears’ best third round score with a 2-over 74 to climb 10 spots on the leaderboard and finish tied for 21st at 6-over 222.
Redshirt senior Kuangyu (Tony) Chen also earned a top-30 finish with a tie for 28th at 8-over 224.