CMS Men's Golf Pulls Away to Win SCIAC #1 by 17 Strokes

GolfStat Scoring

VENTURA, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team held a narrow four-shot lead at the midway point of the two-day SCIAC regular season tournament, but they left little doubt on the final round, shooting a 283 on the second day to win the event by 17 strokes at Olivas Links.

The victory was the third for No. 5 CMS this season in four events. The one exception was earlier this week, as the Stags struggled at the Joust at Goose Creek against a field of mostly Division I golfers, but they were able to regroup quickly and add SCIAC #1 to the California State Intercollegiate and Redlands Bulldog Invitational titles in the fall. 

CMS finished with a 572 over the two days (289-283), a 17-shot advantage over La Verne and Redlands, which tied for second at 589. 

Mason Chiu earned individual medalist honors by shooting a 70 on the second day to finish his 36 holes at 142 (-2). Kevin Jiang was in a three-way tie for second with a 144 after a 71 on Saturday and a 73 on Sunday, while Vijay Jain shot a 145, including an even-par 72 on Sunday's second round. 

Will Parker, meanwhile, had the low round for anybody in the tournament field with a 68 on Sunday, improving 22 spots all the way to a tie for 13th.

Chiu started out his day with three straight birdies to make a move up the leaderboard. Birdies on 12 and 13 had him at -4, and he came back to the pack a little to put some pressure on his individual medalist chase, but he came through with a big birdie on 18 to finish his round at -2. In fact, five of the six CMS golfers all birdied 18 to close their rounds with a flourish. 

CMS will be back in action on March 14-15 at the Kingsman Invitational, hosted by Cal Lutheran.