The Big West Conference made a showing at the Fresno State Lexus Classic with three top-10 finishes in the men’s competition and two in the women’s, while the female Titan squad took the title over their fifteen competitors. Individually five men and three women golfers competed for a position in the top finishes of the two-day spread.
The Titan’s female competition was enough for the top spot on the leader board (289-300-304), with its closest competitors four strokes behind. Freshman Tisha Alyn Abrea led Cal State Fullerton with the second place finish overall, followed by freshman Se Ri Lee, who came from 15 places behind to the sixth spot, helping the team finish first at the Copper River Country Club. UC Riverside was the second team to compete in the Classic for the Big West, finishing seventh overall.
Pacific led the way on the men’s side with a fourth place overall finish, followed by Long Beach State (7th), UC Irvine (9th), Cal State Fullerton (11th), UC Santa Barbara (13th) and Cal State Northridge (15th) competing against 16 other teams. Individually junior Alex Edfort came up just four-strokes short for the single title, taking second place at the Classic (70-70-73). Not far behind was conference foes Allan Jun and Michael Yang of UC Irvine and Byron Meth of Pacific all tied for fourth, while Anteaters Pete Fernandez and Long Beach State’s Xander Schauffele both tied for eighth.
49er's Geared Up For The Spring: This last month Long Beach State competed in three tournaments, taking a two top-five finishes, with a 6th place finish at the Fresno State Lexus Classic. At he Bandon Dunes Championship, the 49ers came from behind to share the title with No. 3 Washington, much help coming from this month Big West Player of the Month, Kevin Lim. In final day of competition, Lim fired a low 5-under-par 66 to finish second overall. This is Long Beach’s third tournament victory this year as the 49ers shared the team title at the Bill Cullum Invitational back in October and won the Folino Invitational last month.
The following weekend, the 49ers fought to the end for a second place finish at the Duck Invitational. It was a back and forth battle between host, No. 14-ranked Oregon and Long Beach, coming up just one-stroke shy of first place. All five 49ers finished in the top-15 as senior Kevin Lim and junior Raymond Ho led the way for LBSU, tying for fifth at 2-under 214.
UC Davis Women Ranked Nationally In 2012: UC Davis finds itself tied for 25th in the most current Golfweek/Sagarin golf ratings in the 2012 spring season. The Aggies strung together a handful of successful performances in October to elevate their status. The Aggies women’s program placed seventh and ninth in its first two tournaments and then closed out the month with a team title at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown Oct. 25-26. In their first spring contest the UC Davis women’s golf team finished 14th at the highly competitive Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, hosted by Ohio State at Palos Verdes Golf Club. All five Aggie golfers are averaging 76.9 or lower, with Demi Runas leading the way with a 73.9 average, and four of the five athletes have posted at least one top 10 finish.
Fullerton’s Fowler Follows Suit: Taylor Fowler was featured in an article by Goldworld.com for her outstanding performances showed this Spring for the Fullerton Titans. The story debuted the truth about Fowler’s start, and how following in brother, Rickie Fowler’s footsteps was not her goal. Now five years down the road, she is competing in the top slots of her competition missing the solo title of the Folino Invitational by just one stroke.
The Murrieta, Calif. native has improved to a 77.5 average this season in comparison to her 89 in her first spring event as a freshman for the Titans. She credits her brother for helping her achieve the best she can and for her families support.