SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara men's golf's tremendous start to the 2026-27 season has not gone unnoticed in the national scope of collegiate golf. The Broncos received a top-25 ranking this week in the latest update of both NCAA Division 1 polls/rankings, checking in at No. 22 in the SCOREBOARD Rankings and 23rd the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches' Poll. It is the program's first top-25 ranking in either poll since at least 2004. 

Launched in 2023, SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd is the official data partner of the NCAA and uses a points system to rank all 300-plus NCAA Division 1 teams throughout the course of the season. The platform also ranks players individually and a pair of Broncos - Emil Nielsen and J.P. Odland - both rank inside the top-100 nationally in the latest edition at Nos. 14 and 75, respectively. 

The Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches' Poll was established in 2015 after partnering with the Golf Coaches Association of America, which has regularly released monthly polls since the 1980s. Available records date back only to 2004. 

Santa Clara has played three events to date and finished first, third and fifth, respectively, with a 31-6-0 head-to-head record against opponents. The Broncos are averaging 280.44 strokes per round as a team and led by Nielsen's phenomenal 68.33 individual stroke average. The junior has finished top four in all three events, including a runner-up finish at the Canadian Collegiate Invitational. 

SCU won their first event of the fall, the Bomb Darts Birds Collegiate, in record-breaking fashion with a program-record 54-hole total of 50-under par. They then tied for third at the Canadian Collegiate Invitational before shooting 18-under par to take fifth at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate. 

The Broncos will look to maintain their spot in the top-25 when they hit the links once again Oct. 19-21 at the Saint Mary's Invitational at Bayonet Blackhorse in Monterey, Calif.