The UCR men’s golf team competed in Santa Barbara on Monday and Tuesday, April 15-16 where they placed second out of eight teams. The schools that competed against UCR included UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Weber State, California Baptist and Cal State Northridge.
The Highlanders were led by senior Andrew Spilman, whose strong play led him to winning the tournament. Spilman shot a remarkable 213 on the tournament which gave him the victory by two strokes. He scored a 70, 71 and 72 in the three rounds.
As a team, UC Riverside finished second in the standings with a total score of 870 behind the tournament winner, UC Santa Barbara. Throughout the tournament the Highlanders were fairly consistent in their rounds with scores of 290, 287 and 293. Winning the third round allowed the Highlanders to jump from fourth to second place. They were much more successful in Santa Barbara than they were in Phoenix, Arizona where they only finished in 15th place out of 18th place in the Grand Canyon University Invitational.
Another standout in the tournament was senior Michael Wong who tied for eighth place. He finished with a total score of 218, scoring 71, 73 and 74.
The player with the biggest improvement on the day was junior Tyler Moore, who moved up 16 spots to finish in 12th place. He finished with a score of 219.
Sophomore Sam He placed 18th in the tournament with a score of 221. Freshman Matthew Huo scored 228 on the day, finishing in 36th place. Freshman Edward Yi finished with 236 and placed 50th in Santa Barbara.
The outcome of the Santa Barbara trip has given the Highlanders momentum with the Big West Tournament on the horizon. The Big West Tournament will be played April 29-30 in Kauai, Hawaii.
