CMS Men's Golf Looks to Four-Peat Against Challenging SCIAC Field
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CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team will try to win its fourth straight SCIAC Championship as the league hosts its annual three-round postseason tournament on Thursday-Saturday at the Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena.
The tournament looks to be extra-competitive this year, as Redlands, La Verne and CMS all stand within five shots of each other after four rounds of regular season tournament play. The NCAA automatic bid is decided by all seven SCIAC rounds, including the three rounds at the SCIAC Championships this weekend, and La Verne (1180), Redlands (1181), and CMS (1185) are neck-and-neck in that battle.
The Stags have more of the momentum as of late, though, after winning the second SCIAC regular season title by three shots over La Verne on April 6-7. That victory came just over a week after winning The West Cup over both teams as well (by nine shots over Redlands and 15 over La Verne).
The recent surge has coincided with the strong play of sophomore Ken Kong, who has won the last two SCIAC Men's Golf Athlete of the Week Awards. Kong had two of the three rounds in the 60s at the West Cup (a 68 in the second round and a 69 in the final round) to win by seven strokes, and then won by four strokes at SCIAC #2, shooting a 70 in the final round on a day when nobody else shot better than a 73.
Kong and senior Alex Wrenn are the highest returning finishers for the Stags from last year's SCIAC Championships, as both shot a 217 (+1) to tie for fifth. Wrenn is the last link to the CMS national championship team of 2016, when he tied for first place after 72 holes and finished as the NCAA runner-up after a playoff, while guiding the Stags to their first-ever national title. Junior Austin Long was also a top-15 finisher at last year's SCIAC Championships, coming in 14th place at +5 after shooting an even par for his first round.
Three of the top six from last year's SCIAC-winning team graduated (Johnny Brandt, Jonathan Shaw, Matt Shuman), which will open the door for a couple of new faces to contribute. Sophomore Mason Chiu has played his way into the CMS top six, while freshman Alex Yun will be competing at SCIACs for the first time. Junior Harrison Brenner will return to the CMS six-man team at the SCIAC Championships this year after finishing tied for 13th as a freshman in 2017 to help the Stags to the team title.
CMS has its first tee time at 10:24 tomorrow morning to start the first of its three rounds, with tee times on Friday and Saturday morning to be announced at the conclusion of each day's play.