QUERENCIA, Mexico - Four Cardinal finished in the top 25 as the Stanford men’s golf team tied for fourth among the 15-team field Tuesday at the Querencia Cabo Collegiate.
The seventh top-10 finish on the season for the Cardinal came with rounds of 281-285-283 at the par-71, 6,928-yard Querencia Golf Club. Stanford was 3-under through 54 holes, matching Cal’s score for fourth. Georgia (-18) won the event in front of South Florida (-8) and Baylor (-5).
“There were a lot of positives to pull out of this week,” said Conrad Ray, Stanford’s Knowles Family Director of Men’s Golf. “This golf course is very demanding and the guys hung in there all three days. We just didn’t play the par-5’s well enough and had a few balls in the desert that we would like to have back.
“It was a great team effort and a very solid result in a strong field.”
Maverick McNealy (75-65-70) paced the Cardinal with an eighth-place showing at 3-under. David Boote (69-73-72) and Viraat Badhwar (69-70-75) tied for 14th at 1-over.
McNealy, whose second-round 65 matched the best single-round score for the tournament, was 2-over through 14 holes before rattling off three straight birdies to help finish his final stretch at 1-under. Boote came through Tuesday with four birdies and Badhwar was 1-over on his front nine.
Badhwar’s 2.92 average on the par-3’s was the second-best among all players, as was McNealy’s 3.82 on par-4’s.
Brandon Wu (73-71-72) was consistent while finishing 24th at 3-over. Isaiah Salinda (72-72-71), who steadily improved throughout the tournament, saved his best round for last -- an even-par performance that featured a pair of birdies.
South Florida’s Aksel Olsen (-9) won the medalist race.
Stanford’s 3.08 par-3 average was second-best among the field.