Bears Take Third at U.S. Intercollegiate

The Cal men's golf team may be unranked in a conference full of top-25 squads, but the Bears showed their Pac-10 rivals this weekend that they are ready to make a run at next week's Pac-10 championships.

They beat out four conference opponents and tied No. 3 UCLA to finish in third place at this weekend's U.S. Intercollegiate.

Cal finished behind only No. 5 USC and host No. 11 Stanford. The Trojans easily outpaced the rest of the field, posting under-par scores in each of the three rounds to end at 12-under. Cal finished 17-over, with a final-round tally of 280-the third-best score on the day.

"We played some really good golf yesterday, no question, and we played very well today also," coach Steve Desimone said. "At one point we actually moved ahead of Stanford. We're doing a lot of things right. It's a good way to get ready for the conference championships in a week."

After struggling to adjust to an unfamiliar course last week in Arizona, Cal hit two extra practice rounds on the par-70, 6,742-yard Stanford Golf Course in preparation for the U.S. Intercollegiate.

"It definitely (helped) because only Brandon (Beck) and I have played the course in the tournament," junior George Gandranata said. "By playing more on this course, we picked up little details. We know where to miss it and where we're not supposed to miss it. By playing more, we definitely got used to the course more."

All-American candidate Gandranata led the Bears with his first-round score of 2-under and ended the tournament tied for 13th place with freshman Stephen Hale. Hale shot the second-best score of the second round to finish at 3-over. Gandranata and freshman Eric Mina were under the weather for both days of the tournament, giving the third-place finish even more substance.

Four of the five golfers in Cal's lineup ended the tournament in the top 20.

"Each tournament is different," Desimone said. "Last week we lose to Oregon, Arizona State wins going away. Here we are, seven days later, and we beat Arizona State and we hammer Oregon ... It's a crazy game and you're never quite sure how it's going to turn out."

Despite finishing behind two of the best teams in the country and beating outright a handful more, Cal still saw room for improvement in its performance.

"We got third, but we left a couple strokes out there," Hale said. "That just kind of keeps us ready for Pac-10s, because we know we can do better than that."

With exactly a week until Cal hosts the Pac-10 championships, the Bears will devote most of their time to improving their play on the Meadow Club course in Fairfax, Calif.

"I've said before that this is a good golf team," Desimone said. "I think we're beginning to show that we're a little better than that. I don't know that we're a great team yet, but these guys are doing what they need to do and we keep getting better."

Tags: U.S. INTERCOLLEGIATE