Third round proves to be the difference as No. 10 CMS wins opening fall tourney
HEMET, Calif. – The traditional spring season for the No. 10 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team is still over four months away, but CMS looked in mid-season form in its first of two fall tournaments, winning the California State Intercollegiate tournament by eight strokes. At the three-round event held on Sept. 21-22 at Diamond Valley Golf Club, CMS pulled away from the rest of the field with an excellent third round.
CMS finished with a 10-over par (874) on the par-72 course, eight strokes ahead of second place The Master's College (882). William Jessup University (896) finished in third while the next closest Division III team, conference foe Cal Lutheran (906), finished in fourth and Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) closed out the top-5 with a score of 908.
The Stags led by one stroke after the first two rounds on the first day of the tournament, shooting back-to-back rounds of 294. In the third round, the Stags put together a combined score of 286 which was 2-under par.
Sophomore Joe LaHorgue (CMC) came away as the top finisher for the Stags as he tied for second place with Hope International's Clarence DeVera at 1-over par. LaHorgue posted a three-round score of 217, two shots behind tournament medalist Johnnie Greco from William Jessup. With each round, LaHorgue improved his score drastically with a 78 in the first round and a 73 in the second round. In the final round he shot a 6-under, 66, for the low round of the whole tournament. That score helped propel him up the leaderboard from 16th place to a tie for second.
CMS sophomore Jonathan Shaw (CMC) closed out his tournament in fourth place (218), one shot behind LaHorgue. Shaw's 2-under par third round was his best round. Also in the top-10 for CMS in the 49-man field were sophomore Johnny Brandt (CMC) who tied for fifth (219) and freshman Alex Wrenn (CMC) who tied for seventh (220).
Sophomore Matt Shuman (CMC) and freshman Sidney Cozier (HMC) were the other Stags to participate and they finished in 16th and 44th, respectively.
The Stags next head to Prescott, Ariz. for the Embry-Riddle Invitational at Talking Rock Golf Course on Sept. 26-28. The Embry-Riddle Invite closes out their fall season.
By Chris Watts
Director of Athletics Communication
Claremont McKenna College
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