Bear Beatdown
WOODSIDE, Calif. (Menlo Country Club) - Stanford's No. 1 men's and women's golf teams teamed up on Thursday for a 4-2 victory over Cal in the 2022 Big Match at Menlo Country Club. The annual event is a six-match, mixed-gender, four-ball format and hosted by the membership at the club. The event began in 2018, but this version was just the third due to 2020 and 2021 being canceled due to Covid. The victory was Stanford's first in the event.
Dean Greyserman/Brooke Seay (Stanford) 3&2 Jeewon Park/Adora Liu (Cal)
Earned Stanford's first point of the day with a 3&2 victory...trailed by one at the turn and remained that way through No. 12...won four straight holes to close out the match...were five-under as a pair, and took commanding lead with three straight birdies on Nos. 13-15.
Aaron Du/Christina Ochoa (Cal) 2&1 Alex Yang/Megha Ganne (Stanford)
Cal earned its first point with a 2&1 victory...Bears were 4up through 13, but Cardinal battled back with wins at No. 14 and 16 to get match to 17th, where all four players birdied to give Bears the victory.
Ethan Ng/Sadie Englemann (Stanford) 2&1 Jasmine Lew/Daniel Heo (Cal)
Tight match throughout, as neither team led by more than one hole until the Cardinal went 2up on No. 15...Cal led by one after 11 holes, but Englemann birdied No. 12 and Ng birdied No. 13 to springboard Cardinal to 1up lead...an Ng birdie on No. 15 gave Stanford a 2up lead, and Cardinal would clinch with ties on Nos. 16 and 17 to win the match.
Sampson Zheng/Cissy Yang (Cal) 1up Barclay Brown/Caroline Sturdza
The last match to finish came down to the final hole, with Cal's Sampson Zheng making a birdie putt to win the match...Cardinal won four holes, while Bears won five in the match.
Karl Vilips/Rachel Heck (Stanford) 4&2 Tony Chen/Mika Jin (Cal)
Almost as dominating as Thorbjornsen and Zhang, Vilips and Heck won 4&2 to clinch the match with Stanford's fourth point of the day...the pair only dropped one hole all day, while winning five holes themselves...had a 3up lead through 8 and maintained a 2up lead through 14...a birdie by Heck on No. 15 and Vilips on No. 16 gave the duo, and the good guys, a victory.
Michael Thorbjornsen/Rose Zhang (Stanford) 5&4 Nathan Wang/Annika Borrelli (Cal)
Shortly after Ng and Englemann clinched Stanford's second point, Thorbjornsen and Zhang clinched its third, 5&4...Cardinal never trailed in the match, as the two sides alternated wins on each of the first five holes...with Stanford 1up through 7, both Cardinal golfers birdied No. 8 and Thorbjornsen birdied No. 9 to go 3up at the turn...the two sides would tie the first three holes on the back nine, before arguably shot of the day...with Thorbjornsen in trouble on the short, par 4, No. 13, Zhang chipped in from off the green for eagle to put Stanford 4 up, and pars by both players on No. 14 clinched the match.
Next up for the Cardinal men is a trip to Colonial Country Club for the Colonial Collegiate next Monday and Tuesday. Stanford is the defending champion and is coming off a season-opening win at the Fighting Illini Invitational. Next up for the Cardinal women is the Stephens Cup, Oct. 10-12, as Seminole Country Club, and event the Stanford men will also play at. The premier event will be broadcast on the Golf Channel.