Another season has come and gone for Cal men’s golf — this year it concluded at the El Macero Classic hosted by UC Davis.
In its first appearance at the tournament, San Diego claimed the win over North Texas by three strokes. The Toreros jumped five spots in the standings on Sunday afternoon, thanks to junior Andi Xu’s 65, the second lowest score in the entire tournament.
This performance put Xu in a tie for first with UCLA’s Omar Morales, leading to a playoff for the individual medal. Morales ultimately edged out Xu, claiming his first collegiate win.
The Bears placed 11th out of 20 teams in their first appearance at the tournament. After having played in the Western Intercollegiate earlier in the week, fatigue might have played a role in the Bears finishing in the middle of the field.
The Bears had a tough outing in Davis — only Nathan Wang managed to stay under-par at the conclusion of the tournament. He went on to place in a tie for 17th, the highest Cal finish in the tournament. In his freshman season, Wang now has four top-20 finishes in eight tournaments for Cal this season.
Junior Aaron Du was unable to build off of the success he found in Santa Cruz at the beginning of last week, tying for 31st. Du shot two over-par in the first round, then two under in the second, but a 73 in the final round dropped him into his final finish.
Freshman Daniel Heo got off to a slow start, shooting four over in his first round on Friday morning. However, he was able to show off his control of the ball in the later rounds, shooting even and then two under to tie for 36th.
Junior Jeewon Park and sophomore Simon Kwon both shot 11 over, and placed in a four-way tie for 77th.
Park’s tournament never got off the ground, as he shot over-par in every round of the tournament. His tournament fully came apart in the second and third rounds when he shot four and five over-par, respectively. Park has appeared in all but one tournament for the Bears this season, and this is his lowest finish this season.
As for Kwon, his tournament came off the rails in round two, shooting eight over-par. That didn’t shake the second-year, as he was able to shoot even in the final round of the tournament.
The Bears will have mixed feelings regarding their uncharacteristically sluggish performance in the El Macero Classic. With only one day of rest, one that was probably filled with travel arrangements, the Bears still kept a competitive pace to end their season.
With the regular season officially over, the blue and gold have one thing on their minds now — the Pac-12 Championship April 28th, hosted by 11-time conference champion No. 10 Stanford. The Bears haven’t won a Pac-12 championship in ten years, a streak they will look to change at the Stanford Golf Course next Friday.