CMS Men's Golf Tied for First After Opening Round of SCIAC Championships

GolfStat Scoring

VENTURA, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team shot a two-under 286 on the opening round of the SCIAC Championships at Olivas Links, tying with host Cal Lutheran for first place with two rounds still to go.

The better news for CMS is that the SCIAC Champion is determined by aggregate score over the seven rounds of SCIAC play from the two regular season tournaments (two rounds each) and the SCIAC Championships (three rounds). The Stags came in with a narrow 10-shot lead over Pomona-Pitzer after regular season play, but that lead extended to 24 as the Sagehens struggled to a 300 (+12) on the first day of the championships.

Three players for CMS came in at -2, Will Parker, Yuefeng (Michael) Ma, and Vikram Chatterjee, putting them in a tie for fourth, just one shot off a three-way tie for first between Neeraj Shetty of Whittier and Miles Eastman and Adam Eishamy of Occidental.

Parker closed strong with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes to finish at -2 for the day. Chatterjee also had a big start and a big finish, opening on the fourth hole and picking up birdies on the 4th and 6th to start out at -2. He hit the 18th at +1, but then had three straight birdies on No. 18, No. 1 and No. 2 to vault up into second place. 

Ma began his day on the third hole and picked up birdies on the 3rd and 4th to start out -2, then shot even par over his final 16 holes. Joshua Kwon was the fourth scorer for CMS with a 76, settling in down the stretch to end with pars on his final five holes to take momentum going into tomorrow's second round. 

The second round will take place tomorrow at Olivas Links, with the third and final round on Tuesday.