In the midst of the changing seasons, Cal made the short trip across the bay to TPC Harding Park in San Francisco to take on the 2023 Goodwin Invitational. This was the second of four tournaments this spring in the state of California.
A whopping 28 schools participated in the 54-hole tournament, nine of which were from the Pac-12. Some of the top teams in the country made their presence known at the Goodwin including No. 7 Stanford, No. 11 Georgia Tech, No. 13 Oklahoma and No. 20 Oregon.
The Sooners locked down both the tournament and individual wins during the final round on Saturday. Oklahoma edged out Georgia Tech by only six strokes to claim its third win of the season. The individual title was claimed by junior Ben Lorenz, who beat Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprecht by two strokes.
As for the Bears, they finished in a tie for fifth alongside the University of San Diego, both schools shooting a total of 842. This score fell just one stroke short of fourth place and just three strokes short of third.
The highest individual finish came from none other than Sampson Zheng, who has been having a stellar spring season. The standout junior placed in a tie for fifth after shooting his collegiate and a tournament low of 64 to finish four under-par. This stellar round enabled Zheng to jump 42 places in the standings on the final day of play.
As for the remaining six Cal golfers, their finishes were scattered across the field.
Freshman Daniel Heo was playing in his third event this spring and shot two over par to finish in an eight-way tie for 32nd. Heo last appeared in the John Burns Intercollegiate where he tied for 58th and was able to produce a solid score after that time off.
Junior Aaron Du shot one more stroke than Heo, finishing three-over in an eight-way tie for 40th. Du placed 73rd in his last appearance for the Bears at the Burns Intercollegiate.
Sophomore Simon Kwon shot five over and placed in a tie for 52nd. Kwon placed 11th at the Lamkin San Diego Classic at the start of March after shooting under par in all three rounds.
Freshman Nathan Wang shot eight over and finished in a tie for 78th. In his seventh event this season and third this spring, Wang shot even in only one round at the Goodwin. His finish is an improvement on his 84th place finish at the Burns Intercollegiate in February.
Redshirt junior Costas Panay was playing as an individual and shot 11 over, finishing in a tie for 111th. Panay has played in every event this spring and failed to improve on his finish from the Lamkin San Diego Classic.
Sophomore Papon Sawatyanon was playing as an individual, making his collegiate debut at the Goodwin. Although he would shoot 13 over par and finish in a tie for 124th, he got off to a good start in the first round before his tournament was derailed.
The Bears were able to climb the rankings as the tournament came to a close and there is a lot of promise to be seen from them as the season rapidly approaches its end. There is little time to rest before the team prepares to take on their next challenge in the form of the Western Intercollegiate hosted by San Jose State.
