Sun Devils Burn Course but Nobody Can Hold That Tiger

When some of the best college golfers and teams assembled at North Ranch Country Club on Tuesday for the final round of the Southwestern Intercollegiate Golf Invitational, the best rose to the occasion.

Stanford’s Tiger Woods and Arizona State, the NCAA’s top-ranked individual player and team, walked away with the big prizes in one of the nation’s premier college golf tournaments.

Woods shot a one-over-par 72 in the final round for a three-round total of 213, par for the tournament. He fired a 69 in the second round, one of only five sub-par rounds in the tournament and led after each round.

Runner-up Joey Snyder of Arizona State finished three strokes back and Arron Oberholser of San Jose State was six shots off the pace.

Arizona State, which also led after every round, scored a 297 in the final round for a three-round total of 893. Even though the Sun Devils blistered a 13-team field that included seven nationally ranked teams, they seemed dissatisfied with their performance.

The Sun Devils defeated second-place USC by 11 strokes. Pepperdine finished third, 13 strokes back.

“I don’t think we played all that good,” said freshman Darren Angel, a former Granada Hills High standout. “We played good enough to win but mostly we were just scraping around out there.”

Angel had a three-round total of 223 and finished in a six-way tie for sixth place in the individual race.

Other local players included USC’s Chad Wright (224), formerly of Buena High; Stanford’s Jerry Chang (229, Westlake), and Pepperdine’s Jason Gore (231, Hart). Wright’s total included a final-round 70, which was part of USC’s tournament-best round of 288.

The top four Trojans combined for nine birdies in the final round and helped the team jump five spots in the standings to edge Pepperdine for second place.

Pepperdine, which plays some of its home matches at North Ranch, was in third place behind Oregon after two rounds and entered the final round 15 shots ahead of USC. After coming in with a final round of 305, the Waves figured they would claim second place.

“SC came out of nowhere,” said Pepperdine’s Mike Walton, who finished with a team-best 223. “We knew we couldn’t catch ASU but we thought we had second place wrapped up. It’s disappointing because we didn’t play that great.”