Bears In 10th After Two Rounds In South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The California men's golf team got off to a strong start in the opening round of the Fighting Irish Classic but fell back to sole possession of 10th place after 36 holes of play at Warren Golf Course on Sunday.

The Golden Bears (562, +2) fired a 279 as a group and found themselves in a three-way tie for third place following the first round of the 54-hole tournament, held at the par-70, 7,023-yard home course of Notre Dame. A second-round 283 dropped the Bears back to 10th place, four shots behind ninth-place Iowa State (558, -2) heading into Monday's third and final round.
 
Aaron Du (70-67 – 137, -3) and Sampson Zheng (68-70 – 138, -2) powered the Blue and Gold throughout the first 36 holes and are tied for 12th and 22nd, respectively. Zheng's first-round 68 was keyed by a four-under 31 on the front nine while Du sank an eagle on No. 5 and shot a two-under 33 on the back nine of round two. Du and Zheng, both 2022 All-Pac-12 Team honorable mentions last spring, were one stroke off of tying their collegiate-low scores.
 
Junior transfer Jeewon Park (70-72 – 142, +2) is tied for 45th in his first tournament with the Bears while Ethan Chung (71-74 – 145, +5) is tied for 56th. Costas Panay sits at seven-over (72-75 – 147) for a tie of 63rd.
 
Florida leads the 15-team field at 17-under, followed by North Carolina (-15), Georgia Southern (-8) and LSU (-8).
 
UP NEXT
The Fighting Irish Classic concludes Monday with the Golden Bears teeing off on hole No. 10 starting at 5:30 a.m. PT/8:30 a.m. ET alongside Michigan State (11th, +4) and Kent State (12th (+7). Live scoring is available on Golfstat.com.
 
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