Shorthanded CMS Men's Golf Finishes Fifth Against Challenging Coyote Classic Field
GolfStat Scoring
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team, ranked No. 4 in Division III, had a close battle with several top 50 Division II programs at the Coyote Classic on Monday and Tuesday, earning a fifth-place finish out of 12 teams over 54 holes.
CMS began the day in fifth place and climbed as high as third in the early going of the final round on Tuesday, before settling for a final score of 895, just one shot behind Colorado School of Mines (No. 15 in Division II in GolfStat's computer rankings. Stanislaus State finished first with an 879, followed by Cal State Monterey Bay (No. 23 in Division II) with an 885 and Cal State San Marcos with an 888.
The Stags finished four shots ahead of Simon Fraser, ranked No. 5 in Division II, and 18 shots ahead of Redlands, the only other Division II program in the field. The course played difficult on Tuesday, with none of the 12 teams coming in under 300 with their 4-player scores, after combining for 14 scores under 300 in their 24 rounds yesterday. CMS had a team score of 304, while Stanislaus, Monterey Bay and San Marcos all had 302s. Joseph Moles of Cal Poly was the only golfer in the field to avoid scoring over par, finishing with a 1-under 70 to lead Tuesday's action.
CMS played the Monday-Tuesday tournament without two of its top golfers in senior Harrison Brenner, who was recently announced as a Division III nominee for the Palmer Cup, and junior Mason Chiu, the defending SCIAC Champion. After shooting a solid +4 yesterday over 36 holes, junior Ken Kong, who was also a nominee for the Palmer Cup, withdrew from today's final round, leaving CMS with only four golfers for its four final-round scores.
The best round of the day for the Stags came from first-year Will Parker, who was playing as an individual and did not have his score count towards the CMS total. Parker finished with a 1-over 72, which was the second-best score in the field behind Moles, as he moved up 19 spots into a tie for 27th place. Parker did it with consistency, tallying 15 pars on his round, while picking up one birdie and two bogeys.
First-year Vikram Chatterjee ended up with a top-10 finish, tying for 10th with a 222 over his three rounds. Chatterjee's Tuesday round included an eagle on the par-5 eighth hole. One shot behind was senior Austin Long, who carded a 223, including a 75 on Tuesday, to earn a tie for 15th place. First-year Edward Wu also had a 75 on Tuesday, ending with a 229, while sophomore Alex Yun finished his four rounds with a 230.
CMS will be back in action in 11 days for the first SCIAC regular season tournament at Tukwet Canyon in Beaumont, with the first round on Saturday, Feb. 29 and the second round on Sunday, March 1.