WCC Golf Championships Central | WATCH: Shieh, Miller Preview Event
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara men's golf team looks to accomplish something only one group of players has done since 1970, and that 's win the West Coast Conference Championship. The 2015-16 squad gets its chance starting Monday when the three-day tournament gets under way at the 6,783-yard, par-72 Blackhawk Country Club Lakeside Course in Danville, Calif.
The annual 54-hole event, which determines the WCC's team and individual automatic qualifiers for the NCAA regional championships, will be contested Monday through Wednesday.
The Broncos, at No. 101, are the third-highest ranked team in the tournament, according to the recent Golfstat.com poll, behind No. 42 Pepperdine and No. 52 Saint Mary's. All nine golf playing schools will compete. Portland does not sponsor men's golf. The Broncos tee off at 7:50 a.m. Monday on the Lakeside course.
"We have plenty of talent and I think we have a good shot," head coach Rob Miller said. "We need four of our five players to play well, not great, but good. We need to avoid the inconsistencies that have bothered us over the past two tournaments."
Sophomore Hayden Shieh, a candidate for all-conference and WCC Player of the Year, leads the Broncos with a 71.0 stroke average and has scored below par in 13 of his 27 rounds.
Shieh collected his second career individual title winning the Cabo Del Sol Intercollegiate in October and established a course record with a 10-under-par 62 to help Santa Clara claim the team title at the National Invitational Tournament in Tucson in early March.
Tyler Kertson, Evan McLeod, Michiel Eyre III and Charlie Watson round out the Broncos five-player team. It's the same lineup that scored a season-low 18-under 846 to win the NIT by six strokes.
"We've played well for most of the season," Miller explained. "We can afford to have one guy play poorly, but not two. We know we can beat teams but we have to play well."
Daily updates will be available on WCCSports.com with a recap and results posted on Santa Clara's website at the conclusion of each round. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstatresults.com.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Name: WCC Championship
Dates (Site): Monday-Wednesday, April 18-20 (Danville, Calif.)
Host: West Coast Conference
Field (Rank): BYU (119), Gonzaga (135), LMU (154), Pacific (164), Pepperdine (42), Saint Mary's (52), San Diego (130), San Fancisco (111), Santa Clara (101).
Details: A single 18-hole round will be played each day for a total of 54 holes. Monday's first round will begin with threesomes teeing off from the first hole starting at 7:50 a.m. PDT.
Course: Blackhawk Country Club Lakeside Course
Yardage-Par: 6,783 Yards-Par 72
Course Website: www.blackhawkcc.org
Course Number: (925) 736-6500
Live Scoring: www.golfstatresults.com
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