Men's Golf Starts SCIAC Championships Sunday Morning
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The No. 9 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team will be in action this weekend at Los Serranos Golf Club in the 2018 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Golf Championships. The Championships take place from Sunday-Tuesday, April 22-24 and will serve as the final three rounds to determine a SCIAC Champion. After the first four rounds of SCIAC play, the Stags hold an eight-stroke advantage over the rest of the field with La Verne currently sitting in second-place.
The Tournament will begin on Sunday morning with the first shot slated to leave the first tee at 10:00 a.m. CMS will begin play an hour later at 11:00 a.m. when Ken Kong (CMC) begins his round for the Stags.
See below for a quick preview of the Tournament:
Current Team Standings
1 - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags – 580-585—1165
2 - La Verne Leopards – 580-593—1173
3 - Redlands Bulldogs – 581-601—1182
4 - Cal Lutheran Kingsmen – 584-605—1189
5 - Chapman Panthers – 588-609—1197
6 - Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens – 598-612—1210
7 - Occidental Tigers – 599-614—1213
8 - Whittier Poets – 610-634—1244
Scouting the Field
A quick look at the standings has the Stags out in front of the pack after tying for first at the SCIAC #1 and winning the SCIAC #2 by eight shots over La Verne. The La Verne Leopards tied for first at the first SCIAC Tournament before finishing hot on the Stags' heels in the second weekend tournament. Through four SCIAC rounds this season the Stags have turned in four rounds at 295 or lower. Highlighting their conference rounds was an even-par, 288 in the second round of the SCIAC #1 Tournament.
It is not just the Leopards and Stags that are in contention for the SCIAC Championship this weekend. Redlands (1182), Cal Lutheran (1189), and Chapman (1197) round out the top-five at the moment and all sit within 35 strokes of the Stags.
CMS is looking for their third-straight SCIAC Championship after winning the last two titles in 2016 and 2017.
Stags Line-Up (Sunday Tee Times)
11:00 a.m. – No. 6 Ken Kong
11:10 a.m. – No. 5 Austin Long (CMC)
11:20 a.m. – No. 4 Alex Wrenn (CMC)
11:30 a.m. – No. 3 Johnny Brandt (CMC)
11:40 a.m. – No. 2 Matt Shuman (CMC)
11:50 a.m. – No. 1 Jonathan Shaw (CMC)
Individuals to Watch
As mentioned, the Stags are currently ranked No. 9 in the country according to GolfStat's team rankings and at the moment CMS has five players ranked in the top-150 players in Division III. Jonathan Shaw leads the handful of nationally ranked Stags with a current ranking of 17. Austin Long is ranked 29th and Ken Kong checks in at No. 67 to join Shaw in the top 75 golfers in the land.
Matt Shuman and Alex Wrenn join their aforementioned teammates in the rankings in the 112 and 117 positions, respectively.
In addition to the five Stags ranked in the latest GolfStat individual rankings, there are the 10 other individuals in the SCIAC currently ranked in the top-150 nationally:
19 - Cade Lawson (Redlands)
30 - Conor Rooney (Pomona-Pitzer)
42 - Tyler Ferrier (Cal Lutheran)
68 - Hisham Hussein (La Verne)
70 - Pitiluk Phanomchai (La Verne)
88 - Alex Stroes (Redlands)
125 - Griffin Tso (Chapman)
126 - Conner Davis (La Verne)
146 - Cameron Cooper (Redlands)
147 - Slater Sivage (Cal Lutheran)
La Verne's Hisham Hussein and Pitiluk Phanomchai each claimed one of the SCIAC regular season tournaments. Hussein won the SCIAC #1 with rounds of 68 and 67 on back-to-back days and Phanomchai carded rounds of 71 and 73 to win the SCIAC #2 Tournament by a stroke. Behind the two Leopards are a slew of quality players including Tyler Ferrier (Cal Lutheran), Cade Lawson (Redlands), Diego Cortes (Redlands), Ryan Kyaw (Cal Lutheran), Conor Rooney (Pomona-Pitzer), Johnny Brandt (CMS), and Conner Davis (La Verne) who all finished in the top five at SCIAC events this season and are in the field this week.
Check CMSathletics.org and the Championships Homepage throughout the week for updated information on the Athenas at the 2018 SCIAC Championships.
