California redshirt junior Tony Chen was recognized as the Pac-12 Men’s Golfer of the Week on Tuesday after his individual victory at the Cal Poly Invitational led the Golden Bears to their second consecutive team title of the fall season.
Chen (75-66-65) claimed individual medalist honors for the first time in his collegiate career with a 10-under-par 206 at the two-day, 54-hole tournament at Carmel’s Preserve Golf Club. He carded 14 birdies to just one bogey over his final 36 holes to stage an impressive climb up the individual leaderboard after opening the tournament with a first-round 75. Three of his eight third-round birdies – which powered Chen to an 18-hole collegiate low 65 – came over the final six holes as he bested UCLA’s Omar Morales (-9) and Luke Powell (-8) as well as Oregon’s Gregory Solhaug (-8).
Chen was the catalyst for Cal’s vault up the team leaderboard. The Bears sat in 11th place out of 15 teams after 18 holes of play before shooting 277-276 over the final two rounds to clinch the victory. Cal closed its 2023 fall slate with consecutive team wins at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational (Oct. 9-10) and the Cal Poly Invitational and earned top-three finishes in its other two fall stroke-play events.
Chen is the third Golden Bear to earn the Pac-12’s weekly honor this fall, joining freshman Eric Lee and senior Sampson Zheng, who earned the award on Sept. 12 and Oct. 3, respectively. Cal is the only Pac-12 program with three weekly conference honors earned so far this season.