Oct. 18, 2011
The No. 23 San Diego State men's golf team rallied to own a share of the lead with just nine holes to play, but was unable to complete the comeback, falling to where it started Tuesday in third place at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational in Fairfax, Calif. The Aztecs had a final-round 9-under 275 to put their 54-hole score at 33-under 819, trailing both No. 2 Oregon and No. 19 California, who shared the title at 41-under 811 at the par-71, 6,718-yard The Meadow Club.
SDSU was a combined 6-under par as a team on the front nine to tie California and own a one-stroke advantage over day-one leader Oregon. Both the Golden Bears and Ducks, however, pulled off furious rallies themselves over the final nine holes, bettering their third-round scores by 11 and 13 strokes, respectively.
The Aztecs had three players finish in the individual top 17. Sophomore Todd Baek (Auckland, New Zealand) moved up one spot from sixth into fifth place at 11-under 202. Baek, who tied for second at the same tournament a year ago, had five birdies against two bogeys over the final 18 holes for a 68 and his second top-five finish of the season and the fourth of his short collegiate career.
SDSU senior J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) and junior Tom Berry (New Haw, England) both made huge jumps up the individual leaderboard in the final round. Spaun moved from 22nd into a tie for 12th with a 4-under 67, highlighted by seven birdies, to improve his 54-hole score to 7-under 206. Berry, meanwhile, had six birdies of his own, including four on the back nine, to fire a 4-under 67 and vault nine spots into a tie for 17th with a career-low 207.
After birding his first hole, senior Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) triple bogeyed the par-4 second hole and never quite recovered, carding four more bogeys before the end of the round and dropping him from a tie for sixth place into a tie for 20th at 5-under 208. Freshman Wilson Bateman (Edmonton, Calif.) was at 1-under par through 12 holes, but then notched three consecutive bogeys and sandwiched a double-bogey with a pair of birdies for a 73 to move him from 55th into 52nd with a 4-over 217.
Oregon's Eugene Wong, who is currently the 11th-ranked player nationally by golfstat.com, logged his worst 18 holes of the tournament, but still ended up with a final-round 4-under 67 to claim the individual title by five strokes with an impressive 18-under 195. Cal's Max Homa was second overall at 13-under, while two golfers tied for third at 12-under.
The Aztecs will be off until 2012 when they open their spring campaign, Feb. 13-14, by playing host to the San Diego Intercollegiate Classic in Chula Vista, Calif.
Alister MacKenzie Invitational
Fairfax, Calif. - The Meadow Club (par-71, 6,718 yards)
Results Through 54 Holes
Team Scoring (Top 4 of 16 teams)
1 California 273-267-271-811 (-41)2 Oregon 270-268-273-811 (-41)3 San Diego State 272-272-275-819 (-33)4 San Francisco 268-276-280-824 (-28)
Top Three Individuals (Top 4 of 80 players)1 Eugene Wong, Oregon 65-63-67-195 (-18)2 Max Homa, California 66-66-68-200 (-13)3 Rak Cho, Oregon 67-68-66-201 (-12) Michael Kim, California 70-65-66-201 (-12)
San Diego State5 Todd Baek 70-64-68-202 (-11)T12 J.J. Spaun 67-72-67-206 (-7)T17 Tom Berry 69-71-67-207 (-6)T20 Alex Kang 66-68-74-208 (-5)T52 Wilson Bateman 75-69-73-217 (+4)