By Roxanne Dickinson The Stanford Daily

April 22, 2008

Stanford, CA (UWIRE) -- This past weekend proved to be another classic battle between the Cardinal and the Trojans as the No. 11 Stanford men's golf team hosted the U.S. Intercollegiate Invitational at the Stanford Golf Course. Stanford put up a great fight against No. 5 Southern California but was not able to overcome USC's commanding lead.

The Trojans seized the tournament crown after shooting a 12-under par for an overall score of 828 while the Cardinal posted a second place finish with a one-over 841.

"There were a lot of positives from last week," head coach Conrad Ray said. "It was great for us to finish second in such a strong, Pac-10-loaded field. We need to figure out a way to compete with USC. They are one of the hottest teams in the country and they got off to an unbelievable start. I think we did a good job to make up ground in the final round."

The first round of the tournament on Saturday went well for the Cardinal as the team recorded a one-under par score of 279, but the Trojans managed an even better start to the day pulling off a 14-under par 266. Four of five Stanford golfers concluded the day under or at even par. Most of the teams began to struggle in the second round as the afternoon winds picked up. The Cardinal concluded the day in second with a collective 12-over par score of 572 while USC grabbed a six-under par 554 to go into the final round in first place.

Stanford stepped up its game in the final round by cutting the Trojans' lead down to 13 strokes. The Cardinal concluded the tournament just one-over par as a team. All five Stanford golfers placed in the top 20 individually, giving the Trojans a run for their money. Rounding out the top five was No. 57 California and No. 3 UCLA in a tie for third. No. 62 UC-Irvine came in fifth.

No. 12 freshman Sihwan Kim was the only Cardinal golfer to post an overall score under par. Kim opened the tournament with an even-par score of 70, but he was also affected by the winds on Saturday afternoon to tab a two-over 72. He battled back in the final round to score a four-under 66 which launched him up the individual ladder four places into a tie for second.

Just behind Kim was freshman Steve Ziegler, who has only improved as the season goes on. Ziegler improved his personal best collegiate finish from a tie for tenth to a tie for seventh this time, shooting a collective one-over score of 211. Though he incurred a four-over 74 in the second round due to the gusty winds, he finished the final round strong with a three-under 67 to help close the gap between Stanford and Southern California.

Junior Dodge Kemmer also proved to be a significant help to the Cardinal coming in 16th with an overall four-over par score of 214. Kemmer played consistently well, recording scores of 69 and 71 in the first and final rounds but fell victim to the second round winds to earn him a score of 74.

Senior Rob Grube and sophomore Jordan Cox finished the individual competition in a tie for 20th with a six-over 216 respectively. Grube opened the first round with a seven-over 77 but improved his score by 11 strokes in the final round to tab a four-under par score of 66. Cox recorded an even par score of 70 in the first and final rounds with a six-over 76 in the second round.

"It's neat to see how big of a role that our frosh have played the last few weeks," Ray said. "This bodes well for us because their presence along with the presence of the older guys will help us with our consistency and our confidence. It is great to see it all come together."

After gaining some momentum with this second place finish, the Cardinal will spend this week preparing for the postseason. Stanford will head to Fairfax, Calif. on April 280 to take on some of the top teams in the nation during the Pac-10 Conference Championships.

"We have six guys that have a lot of experience going into Pac-10s," Ray said. "Adding Daniel Lim to these five guys will increase our depth and help our cause."

"At the end of the day, it boils down to us focusing on just playing the golf course," he continued. "The nice thing is that we have a lot of guys who have played there a lot for other events, so they are familiar with the course. No one wants to get beat by USC two weeks in a row, or get beat by UCLA or Berkeley for that matter."

(C) 2008 The Stanford Daily via UWIRE