NAPA, Calif. - Santa Clara men's golf turned in one of the top rounds in program history on Tuesday as they ascended from fifth to a runner-up finish at the Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational. The Broncos shot 17-under 271 in Tuesday's round at the par-72 Silverado Country Club, tied for the third-lowest in program history, and finished the event 29-under 835 - good for the seventh-best 54-hole score in program history.
Matt Robles,
Tucker Sweeney and
Calder Overfelt each shot 4-under par or better in the final round. Robles and Sweeney both finished inside the top five individually while Overfelt was just outside the top-10 with a 12th-place finish.
ROUND HIGHLIGHTS:
- Tuesday's 17-under tied the team's third round performance at the season-opening Palouse Collegiate, as well as the 2013 Pacific Invitational for the third-lowest in program history.
- Robles finished in fourth place at 14-under 68-67-66--202, tied for the best finish of his collegiate career. The final tally was also the lowest of his career while the 6-under 66 final round tied his performance in the opening round of the Palouse Collegiate for the lowest of his season and career.
- Robles' 14-under is tied for the third-lowest score to par in program history. He was bogey-free with six birdies - three on the front nine and three-straight on Nos. 16-18 on the back.
- Robles now has 29 career rounds under par, moving him ahead of Jimmy Cacho (2006-09) for the eighth-most in program history.
- Sweeney also finished inside the top five by tying for fifth at 7-under 70-72-67--209. It is the freshman's second-straight top-five finish after taking home medalist honors two weeks earlier at the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout.
- Sweeney logged seven birdies in his final round to counter a pair of bogeys.
- Overfelt finished just a shot behind Sweeney, but was pushed out of the top-10 due to a seven-way tie for fifth. The senior was 6-under 70-72-68--210 to climb six spots in the final round and tie for 12th - his third top-20 finish of the season and 12th of his career.
- Emil Nielsen, playing as an individual, was the lone golfer among the field of 82 to tally shot even-par across the three rounds. He finished in sole possession of 40th place after rounds of 70, 75 and 71.
- Kevin Hollomon and J.P. Odland both saw big improvements from Monday's second round to the final. Hollomon was 2-under 70, five strokes better than in the second round while Odland saw a six-stroke improvement with an even-par 72 in the final round.
- As great as Santa Clara was, 27th-ranked BYU was even more impressive with a whopping 26-under 262 final round pushing them to a 54-under 810 final tally to run away with the team title. The Cougars had the top two individuals with Kihei Akina taking home medalist honors at 21-under 195 and Peter Kim finishing runner-up at 16-under 200.
- UC Davis' Lequan Wang (201) finished one stroke better than Robles to take third place.
SANTA CLARA INDIVIDUALS:
| Place |
Player |
Score |
| 4. |
Robles |
69-67-66--202 (-14) |
| T5. |
Sweeney |
70-72-67--209 (-7) |
| T12. |
Overfelt |
70-72-68--210 (-6) |
| 40. |
Nielsen (Ind.) |
70-75-71--216 (E) |
| T41. |
Hollomon |
72-75-70--217 (+1) |
| T46. |
Odland |
69-78-72--219 (+3) |
FINAL STANDINGS:
| Place |
Team |
Score |
| 1. |
#27 BYU |
267-281-262--810 (-54) |
| 2. |
Santa Clara |
278-286-271--835 (-29) |
| T3. |
Tohoku Fukushi |
271-292-281--844 (-20) |
| T3. |
San Francisco |
279-284-281--844 (-20) |
| T3. |
South Alabama |
287-272-285--844 (-20) |
| 6. |
Cal Poly |
284-288-279--851 (-13) |
| 7. |
Eastern Michigan |
283-295-280--858 (-6) |
| 8. |
UConn |
287-289-283--859 (-5) |
| 9. |
UC Davis |
284-293-283--860 (-4) |
| 10. |
Howard |
281-292-293--866 (+2) |
| 11. |
North Carolina A&T |
284-300-283--867 (+3) |
| 12. |
Hawaii |
285-302-288--875 (+11) |
| 13. |
Central Michigan |
293-300-288--881 (+17) |
| 14. |
Florida A&M |
300-294-295--889 (+25) |
UP NEXT:
The Broncos are right back in action Thursday through Saturday just up the road at Stanford to take part in the Goodwin. The three-day event will be played at the Stanford Golf Course and hosted by the Cardinal.