CMS Men's Golf Takes Seven-Shot Lead After First Day of SCIAC Championships

GolfStat Scoring

BEAUMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team shot a 297 (+9) in windy conditions to take a seven-stroke lead over Redlands on the first day of the SCIAC Championships on Sunday at the Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon.

Yuefeng (Michael) Ma ended his opening round in a three-way tie atop the individual leaderboard at -1, joining John Williams of Whittier and Spencer Leader of Redlands as the only three players who shot in the red. Adrian Chiu stands alone in fourth place at +2, while Mason Chiu is tied for fifth at +3. 

Ma played par or better his entire round after opening with birdies on three of his first four holes. He came back down to even at the turn, but then birdied three of the first five holes on the back nine, before settling for a 71 and a share of the individual lead. 

Adrian Chiu had two straight birdies on the third and fourth holes to get to -1, then took the turn at +2, before settling in and playing solid golf on the back nine with nine straight pars to earn his fourth-place position. Mason Chiu, who won the SCIAC Championship the last time the Stags competed in 2019, also had a strong stretch of three birdies in four holes on the front nine. 

Vikram Chatterjee and Vijay Jain tied as the fourth scorer for CMS with 77 scores. Chatterjee's round included an eagle on the 16th, after starting out with two birdies on his first four holes. Jain had four birdies in total, including back-to-back on the 15th and 16th. 

The second round of the SCIAC Championship will get underway tomorrow at 10 a.m., as the Stags will look to extend their lead and win their third SCIAC event of the 2022 season, after taking both regular season tournaments.