UCLA to Host Gifford Collegiate Championship, Nov. 3-5

UCLA will host the Gifford Collegiate Championship, Nov. 3-5, at CordeValle Country Club in San Martin, CA. This year the tournament celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Ten teams will compete for the tournament title: UCLA, Colorado, Lamar, Northwestern, Stanford, SMU, South Florida, Texas, USC and Wisconsin. USC’s Rico Hoey is the defending individual champion; Alabama won the team title in 2013.

The tournament runs 54 holes with 18 holes played each day. On Nov. 3 and 4, teams will tee off from the first and 10th tees beginning at 8:30 a.m. (PST). The final round on Nov. 5 will feature a 9 a.m. (PST) shotgun start. Teams will field six-man groups with the top five scores counting for the team total.

Head coach Derek Freeman has announced the following lineup: seniors Manav Shah and Preston Valder, juniors Lorens Chan, Jonathan Garrick and Jake Knapp and freshman Brandon Mai.

Chan is the Bruins’ highest ranked player, checking in at No. 29. In three starts this season, he has finished among the Top 20. Garrick recorded a pair of Top 10 results last month, tying for seventh at the Erin Hills Intercollegiate and tying for eighth at the U.S. Collegiate Championship. Ranked 33rd, his scoring average is 71.8. Knapp and Shah won the Husky Invitational to start the season, and Shah has played nine rounds this season in eight-under par. He leads the team with a scoring average of 70.7 and is ranked 57th.

The rest of the UCLA roster -- seniors Jay Hwang, Matt Pinizzotto and Kyle Pollema and freshmen Victor Ponte and Corey Shaun -- will compete as individual competitors.

The CordeValle course will play to a par of 71 over 7,360 yards. Live scoring will be provided by GolfStat.