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Vikram Chatterjee played all three of his rounds under par
Vikram Chatterjee played all three of his rounds under par

CMS Men's Golf Finishes Third, Chatterjee Second, at Ottawa Fall Invitational

GolfStat Scoring

SURPRISE, Ariz. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team finished third, and Vikram Chatterjee finished second by one stroke as the Stags concluded fall play at the Ottawa (Ariz.) Fall Invitational on Tuesday at Sterling Grove Golf and Country Club

The tournament was about halfway through the second round on Monday when play was suspended due to weather, leaving about 27 holes to finish on Tuesday on a lengthy course that measured just over 7000 yards (7004). CMS began the day in fourth, but used a strong performance from Chatterjee to leapfrog into third by three strokes over Arizona Christian. 

The Stags essentially finished second, since host Ottawa, the third-ranked team in NAIA, fielded two teams of five players which both came in under par, with their 'A' team ending at -16 and their 'B' team at -7. CMS was third at +8, with Arizona Christian at +11 in fourth, before a big dropoff to fifth place Lewis-Clark State at +36. 

Chatterjee was under par in all three of his rounds over the two-day tournament, finishing his third round on Tuesday with a 69 to end at -6. He stood at +3 after his first seven holes on Monday, and then played the rest of the tournament at -9, picking up five birdies in his final round (including three in a row on the 11th, 12th and 13th). Nick Lippe of Ottawa was tied with him for second before he bogeyed his final hole, and Gautam Potduhke had three straight bogeys on 13, 14, and 15 to see his lead fall to one, but he was able to cling to his victory with three straight pars. 

Riley Lai earned a top-10 finish in a tie for seventh by finishing the tournament at -1, shooting par or better on all three rounds (72-71-72). Kevin Jiang finished with a 73 in his final round, while Yuefeng (Michael) Ma had a 69 on his second round, which was split over Monday and Tuesday.  

CMS concludes the fall season currently ranked No. 7 in the nation in Division III, and the Stags will now turn their attention to the spring, where they will try to duplicate their success from a year ago, winning the SCIAC title by over 30 strokes and finished third in the NCAA Division III Championship.